“Well, children do out grow a good many of these disagreeable capers.”
The next night Mr. Borden brought home something in a paper bag and Jack begged the bag “to bust,” watching his father as he shook out a leather strap cut in thongs and said—
“Now, Jack, every time you do any naughty, ugly thing, I am going to punish you with this strap. You must not pinch Marilla or the babies, not kick any one nor tell what isn’t true. We want you to be a pretty good boy, otherwise you will have to be sent to the reform school.”
“I’d like to go to the ’form school.”
“Not much,” was the comment.
“Why, I’d run away.”
“There’s a high fence all around, and you couldn’t climb it.”
“Then I’d holler like fury.”
“And be put in a dark dungeon.” 36
“There was a man in a story who dug his way out. That’s what I’d do.”