“I! what do you mean?” said Lily quickly.
“Well, dear, I don’t wish to vex you; but you know that I could not help hearing what went on all the time that you were at your tasks. Mother had to tell you this thing and that—just what, I suppose, she had told you a hundred times before: and you were watching the butterfly fluttering about while she was explaining the rule of three; so of course you did not understand it one bit, and she had to begin from the beginning again. Mother is so kind and gentle—it seems as though her goodness made you careless. I am sure that you would learn your lessons much better if she had taught you with a rod in her hand.”
“George, I never expected this from you!” cried Lily, her eyes filling with tears.
“Forgive me, dear, for speaking so plainly; but when I look at mother, and see her so thin and so pale, I can’t help telling you a little what I think. Now, it’s just like this,” continued George, searching in his mind for a simile. “Suppose that you were lame, and that it was my duty to lift you into the baby’s little carriage, and give you a turn round the square.”
“You could manage it, I dare say,” said Lily.
“Ah! but suppose that, as I was drawing you along, you caught at every bush, and clung to the palings, and held the wheels, so that they could not be turned round.”
Lily could not refrain from laughing. “You would have hard work, Georgie, dragging me along! But I should never make you so unkind a return, if you were so good as to draw me round the square!”
“And yet, when dear mother gives her time and her strength to getting you on with your learning, you act just as if you wished to make her pull in vain; and I am sure that she is just as much tired as I should be after giving such a drive. Now, Lily, I am certain that you love dear mamma—”
“I love her—I dote on her—I would do anything for her!” exclaimed the little girl, fairly bursting into tears, for she was much wounded by the words of her brother.
George kissed her again and again, as if angry with himself for having vexed her; but as soon as Lily was more calm, he resumed the subject once more.