Merlyn's Cipher Sunday Answer Key for the December 5, 2021 Puzzle

 Here's the answer key for some of the opening lines of So Big by Edna Ferber.  

Until he was almost ten the name stuck to him. He had literally to fight his way free of it.  From So Big (of fond and infantile derivation) it had been condensed into Sobig.  And Sobig DeJong, in all its consonantal disharmony, he had remained until he was a ten year old schoolboy in that incredibly Dutch district southwest of Chicago known first as New Holland and later as high Prairie.  At ten, by dint of fists, teeth, copper-toed boots, and temper, he earned the right to be called by his real name, Dirk DeJong.  Now and then, of course, the nickname bobbed up and had to be subdued in a brief and bitter skirmish.  His mother, with whom the name had originated, was the worst offender.