Then she said sternly : `` Do you reckon we 're going to keep this baby ? '' `` I -- I -- dunno , '' said Pa. . And he did n't . `` Well , we 're NOT . I brought up one boy and that 's enough . I do n't calculate to be pestered with any more . I never was much struck on children as children , anyhow . You say that Mary Garland had a brother out in Mantioba ? Well , we shall just write to him and tell him he 's got to look out for his nephew . '' `` But how can you do that , Ma , when nobody knows his address ? '' objected Pa , with a wistful look at that delicious , laughing baby . `` I 'll find out his address if I have to advertise in the papers for him , '' retorted Ma . `` As for you , Pa Sloane , you 're not fit to be out of a lunatic asylum . The next auction you 'll be buying a wife , I s ` pose ? '' Pa , quite crushed by Ma 's sarcasm , pulled his chair in to supper . Ma picked up the baby and sat down at the head of the table . Little Teddy laughed and pinched her face -- Ma 's face ! Ma looked very grim , but she fed him his supper as skilfully as if it had not been thirty years since she had done such a thing . But then , the woman who once learns the mother knack never forgets it . After tea Ma despatched Pa over to William Alexander 's to borrow a high chair .
When Pa returned in the twilight , the XXXXX was fenced in on the sofa again , and Ma was stepping briskly about the garret .
address asylum baby boy brother head nobody supper table thing