"Why do you go after the coaches, Sidney?" said Mrs. Morton; "it is very naughty; you will be run over some day."
"Yes, ma'am," said Sidney, who during the whole colloquy had been trembling from bead to foot.
"'Yes ma'am,' and 'no, ma'am:' you have no more manners than a cobbler's boy."
"Don't tease the child, my dear; he is crying," said Mr. Morton, more authoritatively than usual. "Come here, my man!" and the worthy uncle took him in his lap and held his glass of brandy-and-water to his lips; Sidney, too frightened to refuse, sipped hurriedly, keeping his large eyes fixed on his aunt, as children do when they fear a cuff.
"You spoil the boy more than do your own flesh and blood," said Mrs.
Morton, greatly displeased.
Here Tom, the youngest-born before described, put his mouth to his mother's ear, and whispered loud enough to be heard by all: "He runs arter the coach 'cause he thinks his ma may be in it. Who's home-sick, I should like to know? Ba! Baa!"
The boy pointed his finger over his mother's shoulder, and the other children burst into a loud giggle.
"Leave the room, all of you,—leave the room!" said Mr. Morton, rising angrily and stamping his foot.
The children, who were in great awe of their father, huddled and hustled each other to the door; but Tom, who went last, bold in his mother's favour, popped his head through the doorway, and cried, "Good-bye, little home-sick!"
A sudden slap in the face from his father changed his chuckle into a very different kind of music, and a loud indignant sob was heard without for some moments after the door was closed.