"They are lovely and soft, aren't they?" May agreed. "Won't the girls talk when they hear about my baby?" "Rather," said May reassuringly. "I expect they'll wonder if he's like me." Remote winds muttered over the hill-side, and the curlews set up a chorus of chattering. "Night's lovely with a baby," said Jenny, and very soon fell asleep. Chapter XLII: _Shaded Sunlight_ The naming of the boy caused considerable discussion in Bochyn. Indeed, at one stage of the argument a battle seemed imminent. Jenny herself went outright for Eric. "Never heard no such a name in all my life," affirmed Trewhella. "You must have been about a lot," said Jenny sarcastically. "I think Eric's nice," urged May, in support of her sister's choice. "I never heard the name spoken so far as I do remember," Mr. Champion put in, "but that's nothing against it as a name. As a name I do like it very well. To be sure 'tis a bit after Hayrick, but again that's nothing against a farmer's son." "I don't like the name at all," said old Mrs. Trewhella. "To me it do sound a loose sort of a name." "Oh, 'tis no name at all," Zachary decided. "How do 'ee like it, my dear?" he asked, turning to Jenny. "I don't know why I like it," she answered, "but I do." "There's a grand old name down Church," said Granfa meditatively. "A grand, old, rolling, cut-a-piece-off-and-come-again sort of a name, but darn 'ee if I can remember it. Ess I can now. Athanacious! Now that's a name as will make your Jack or your Tom look very hungry. That's a name, that is!" Impressive as sounded Granfa's trumpeting of it, everybody felt that nowadays such a mouthful would hamper rather than benefit the owner. As for Jenny, she declared frankly against it. "Oh, no, Granfa, not in these! Why, it would drive anyone silly to say it, let alone write it. I wish it was a girl and then she could have been called Eileen, which is nice." Trewhella looked anxiously at the subject of the discussion as if he feared his wife could by some alchemy transmute the sex of the baby. "I should dearly love to call the lill chap Matthew or Mark or Luke," he said. "John I don't take no account of. I do call that a poor ornary unreligious sort of a name for an Evangelist." "I don't like John at all," said Jenny emphatically. "Then there's Abraham and Jacob," Zachary continued. "And Abel and Adam." "And Ikey and Moses," Jenny scoffingly contributed. "How not Philip?" suggested old Mrs. Trewhella. "Or Nicholas?" said May. "Call him Satan straight away at once!" commented the father bitterly. "I like a surname sometimes," said Jenny thoughtfully. "I once knew a boy called Presland. Only we used to call him Bill Hair. Still Eric's the nicest of all, _I_ think," she added, returning to her first choice.