The Ox-Cart Man

Clara has another man in her life.  (Readers!  We know!  She's terribly darling though after all.  She's got to play the field.)  When Birdie is done with Harold (he goes to bed really early after all--kind of a wet blanket), she moves on to The Ox-Cart Man.  The Ox-Cart Man: older, rugged, solid--a provider.  Walking all the way to Portsmouth Market with all manner of things to sell so that he can bring home all kinds of delightful wares for the family to use throughout the winter and spring before he walks off to Portsmouth Market again the following fall.  Sigh.  It's true.  The Ox-Cart Man already has a family.  Clara, pointing to the Ox-Cart Man's wife: "What's this guy?"  And to his son--and daughter: "What's this guy?"  As if the use of the interrogative pronoun that doesn't refer to a person will make them less real!

The Ox-Cart Man has an ox (imagine!), which, actually, he sells, in Portsmouth Market.  He's not really  as heartless as that makes him sound though.  When he sells his ox, he kisses him good-bye on his nose.  When Julie reads this bit, she kisses Clara's nose--and Joe's, if he happens to be about.

Clara has, of late, been figuring out what's what with kissing.  When Julie tucks Clara in, she will kiss each of Birdie's cheeks, and sometimes Birdie's forehead or nose.  One night, Clara surprised Julie by grabbing her face and starting to pull her in for kiss on the mouth.  Birdie kissing Julie on the mouth wouldn't have been quite the end of the world, but given that Clara has two fictional men on the string, Julie felt it prudent to let Clara know that only Mommies and Daddies and kiss on the mouth.