“Were the children always good?”
“Oh, no. There were a good many bad ones among them.”
“Did they have a strap?”
“Yes, a bigger one than your father’s.”
“Will papa get a bigger one when I’m big?”
“Oh, Jack, I hope you won’t need any strap. Why can’t you be a good boy?”
Jack gave a long sigh. “Sometimes badness comes into your mind just sudden like.”
After a pause—“Did you like Bethany Home?”
“Not as well as being here. I’ve told you 57 that forty times. And there were no little babies. And no dessert, only a teeny little bit on Sunday. And just a sweet cracker for tea.”
“What makes you like the babies? They can’t talk nor do anything. And they are not as pretty as I am. Folks used to say when I was real little, ‘Oh, what a lovely child.’”