said it was 'aignogg.' They laffed and kicked up their heels wuss nor a
circus, and their collars got unpinned, and their faces was red, and they
put their arms around me and my chum and hugged us and asked us if we
didn't want some of the custard. You'd a dide to see me and my chum drink
that lather. It looked just like soap suds with nutmaig in it, but by gosh
it got in its work sudden. At first I was afraid when the girls hugged me,
but after I had drank a couple of shaving cups full of the 'aignogg' I
wasn't afraid no more, and I hugged a girl so hard she catched her breath
and panted and said, 'O, don't.' Then I kissed her, and she is a great big
girl, bigger'n me, but she didn't care. Say, did you ever kiss a girl full
of aignogg? If you did it would break up your grocery business. You would
want to waller in bliss instead of selling mackerel. My chum ain't no
slouch either. He was sitting in a stuffed chair holding another New
Year's girl, and I could hear him kiss her so it sounded like a cutter
scraping on bare ground. But the girl's Pa came in and said he guessed it
was time to close the place, unless they had a license for an all night
house, and me and my chum went out. But _wasn't_ we sick when we got out
doors. O, it seemed as though the pegs in my boots was the only thing that
kept them down, and my chum he like to dide. He had been to dinner and
supper and I had only been skating all day, so he had more to contend with
than I did. O, my, but that lets me out on aignogg. I don't know how I got
home, but I got in bed with Pa, cause Ma was called away to attend a baby
matinee in the night. I don't know how it is, but there never is anybody
in our part of town that has a baby but they have it in the night, and
they send for Ma. I don't know what she has to be sent for every time for.
Ma ain't to blame for all the young ones in this town, but she has got up
a reputashun, and when we hear the bell ring in the night Ma gets up and
begins to put on her clothes, and the next morning she comes in the dining
room with a shawl over her head, and says, 'its a girl and weighs ten
pounds,' or 'a boy,' if it's a boy baby. Ma was out on one of her
professional engagements, and I got in bed with Pa. I had heard Pa blame
Ma about her cold feet, so I got a piece of ice about as big as a raisin
box, just zactly like one of Ma's feet, and laid it right against the
small of Pa's back. I couldn't help laffing, but pretty soon Pa b