"All right," said Suzanna with alacrity. She started to lift the baby from his carriage when the man sprang up and took the child from her. The baby smiled and won his way at once to the stranger's heart.
"He's sweet, isn't he?" began Suzanna, as she entered the arbor, Maizie with her. Miss Massey drew Maizie within the circle of her own arm.
"He is that," said the man earnestly, "although I don't know very much about babies. Does he cry much?"
"Well, he's very sinful when he's hungry. He's getting better now because he's growing older, but he used to shriek till his face got red. Once in awhile now he wants what he wants right away. I was trying once to learn a piece of poetry, and he suddenly shrieked and I had to stop everything and warm his milk. I'm only hoping he'll live to grow up, because if he should die now I'm afraid God wouldn't want him in Heaven."
"Are there ladies in Heaven that take care of babies?" asked Maizie interestedly, a new train of thoughts started.
"You know there are, Maizie," said Suzanna, allowing no one else a chance to answer. "There are lots of little babies that go away, and do you s'pose they'd be called if they were going to be left hungry and cold? God has it all arranged. First, he calls a baby and then pretty soon he calls a mother and she takes care of the baby."
"But why doesn't he leave them on earth with their own mothers?"
"Because sometimes he takes a liking to somebody down here," Suzanna said gravely. "But anyway, you needn't ask me such questions, because here's Miss Massey who knows everything," Suzanna finished magnanimously.
"She does that," said the man gravely who was holding the baby.
"Are you related to Miss Massey?" asked Suzanna. Now Miss Massey's rather faded cheeks grew pink.
"Is it a long time before the baby needs his bottle again, Suzanna?" she asked.
"Oh, not for hours," said Suzanna. "You see, now he eats crackers and bread and butter and an egg sometimes, and we gave him some before we started." She returned relentlessly to the question again, appealing to the man. "Are you related to Miss Massey?"
"No," the stranger said after a time, "we're just friends."
Miss Massey put in hastily: "Shall we go into the house, children, and I'll show you some interesting things?"