To all which the baby replied with thoughtful stares, only occasionally condescending to laugh.

The feet having been examined again--there is much in babies' feet--the party smiled and went away, calling after baby to the last.
"Now, that's all affectation," said Ralph; "you young ladies--" "You're a barbarian, sir!" replied Fanny, with great candor.
"I know I am." "I'm glad you do." "But," continued Ralph, "tell me now, really, do you young girls admire babies ?" "Certainly _I_ do--" "And I," said Redbud.
"They're the sweetest, dearest things in all the world," continued Fanny, "and the man who don't like babies--" "Is a monster, eh ?" "Far worse, sir!" And Fanny laughed.
"That is pleasant to know," said Ralph; "then I'm a monster." Having arrived at which highly encouraging conclusion, the young man whistled.
"I say," he said, suddenly, "I wanted to ask--" "Well, sir ?" said Fanny.
"Before we leave the subject--" "What subject ?" "Babies." "Well, ask on." "I wish to know whether babies talk." "Certainly!" "Really, now ?" "Yes." "And you understand them ?" "_I_ do," said Fanny.
"What does 'um, um,' mean?
I heard that baby say 'um, um,' distinctly." Fanny burst out laughing.
"Oh, I know!" she said, "when I gave him an apple." "Yes." "It meant, 'that is a very nice apple, and I would like to have some.'" "Did it ?" "Of course." "Suppose, then, it had been a crab-apple, and the baby had still said 'um, um,' what would it then have meant ?" "Plainly this: 'that is not a nice apple, and I would not like to have any.'" "That is perfectly satisfactory," said Ralph;"'um, um,' expresses either the desire to possess a sweet apple, or the objection to a sour one.

I have heard of delicate shades of language before, but this is the sublimity thereof." And Ralph laughed.
"I never saw such a person," said Fanny, pouting.
"By the bye," said Ralph.
"Well, sir ?" "What was there so interesting in the toes ?" "They were lovely." "Anything else ?" "Beautiful." "That all?
Come, now, tell me the charm in those feet which you young ladies designated, I remember, as 'teensy,' and expressed your desire to 'tiss.' Shocking perversion of the king's English--and in honor of nothing but two dirty little feet!" said Ralph.
The storm which was visited upon Ralph's unhappy head for this barbarous criticism was dreadful.

Fanny declared, in express terms, that he was a monster, an ogre, and with a stone in his breast instead of a heart.

To which Mr.Ralph replied, that the best writers of ancient and modern times had nowhere designated as a monster the man who was not in raptures at the sight of babies;--whereupon Miss Fanny declared her disregard of writers in general, and her preference for babies--at which stage of the discussion Ralph began to whistle.
Why not catch the laughter of those youthful lips, and tell how the young men and maidens amused themselves that fine autumn day?
Everything innocent and fresh is beautiful--and there are eyes which shine more brightly than the sun, voices which make a softer music than the breezes of October in the laughing trees.