Mr. Hooper attempted to make a speech, with his matronly and
contented wife laughing and making sly digs at his effort, and his
daughter encouraging him.
"Now, young fellers," he began, "these boys--uh, Mister Bill Brown an'
Mister 'Gustus Grier,--I says to them,--in the first place, I says:
'Perfesser, these here kids don't know enough to build a chicken coop,'
I says, an' Perfesser Gray he says to me, he says, he would back them
fellers to build a battleship or tunnel through to Chiny, he says. So I
says: 'You kids kin go ahead,' I says, an' these blame boys they went
ahead an' shucks! you all see what they, Bill an' Gus, has done. You
fellers has got to have a lot o' credit an' you are goin' to git it!
"Now, my wife she don't think I'm any good at makin' a speech an 'I
ain't, but I'm a-makin' it jes' the same fer these boys, Bill an' Gus,
b'jinks! They got to git credit fer what they done, jes' two kids doin'
a reg'lar man's job. An' I reckon that not even that feller Eddy's son,
that there chap they call the 'Wizard of Menlo Park,' I reckon he
couldn't 'lectrocute nothin' no better'n these here boys, Bill an' Gus,
has lighted this here domycile. An'--oh, you kin laugh, Ma Hooper,
b'jinks, but I reckon you're as proud o' these here young Eddy's son's
sons as I be. Now, Mister Bill an' Mister Gus, you kin bet all these
folks'd like to have a few words. Now, as they say in prayer meetin',
'Mister Bill Brown'll lead us in a speech.
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