"I'd punch anybody that christened a middle name like that onto me." But, in spite of his name, the baby grew and prospered.

He fell out of his crib, of course, the moment that he was able, and barked his shins over the big shells by the what-not in the parlor the first time that he essayed to creep.

He teethed with more or less tribulation, and once upset the household by an attack of the croup.
They gave up calling him by his first name, because of the Captain's invariably answering when the baby was wanted and not answering when he himself was wanted.

Sophronia would have liked to call him Joash, but her husband wouldn't hear of it.

At length the father took to calling him "Dusenberry," and this nickname was adopted under protest.
Captain Hiram sang the baby to sleep every night.