`` Jims has had a few attacks of croup this fall -- just the ordinary croup -- not that terrible thing he had last year . But whatever blood runs in his little veins it is good , healthy blood . He is rosy and plump and curly and cute ; and he says such funny things and asks such comical questions . He likes very much to sit in a special chair in the kitchen ; but that is Susan 's favourite chair , too , and when she wants it , out Jims must go . The last time she put him out of it he turned around and asked solemnly , ` When you are dead , Susan , can I sit in that chair ? ' Susan thought it quite dreadful , and I think that was when she began to feel anxiety about his possible ancestry . The other night I took Jims with me for a walk down to the store . It was the first time he had ever been out so late at night , and when he saw the stars he exclaimed , ` Oh , Willa , see the big moon and all the little moons ! ' And last Wednesday morning , when he woke up , my little alarm clock had stopped because I had forgotten to wind it up . Jims bounded out of his crib and ran across to me , his face quite aghast above his little blue flannel pyjamas . ` The clock is dead , ' he gasped , ` oh Willa , the clock is dead . ' `` One night he was quite angry with both Susan and me because we would not give him something he wanted very much . When he said his prayers he plumped down wrathfully , and when he came to the petition ` Make me a good boy ' he tacked on emphatically , ` and please make Willa and Susan good , 'cause they 're not . ' `` I do n't go about quoting Jims 's speeches to all I meet . That always bores me when other people do it ! I just enshrine them in this old hotch-potch of a journal ! `` This very evening as I put Jims to bed he looked up and asked me gravely , ` Why ca n't yesterday come back , Willa ? ' `` Oh , why ca n't it , Jims ? That beautiful ` yesterday ' of dreams and laughter -- when our boys were home -- when Walter and I read and rambled and watched new moons and sunsets together in Rainbow Valley . If it could just come back !
But yesterdays never come back , little Jims -- and the todays are dark XXXXX clouds -- and we dare not think about the tomorrows . ''
'cause If as at because for in of that with