“Well, well, this is something like!” declared Doctor Mendel, as he returned from the nursery. “You’re a trump, Kitty. I know how hard it was for you to brace up to the occasion, but you did it, and you deserve great credit. Now, listen to me, my girl. In the first place, Rosamond is all right. I shall come to see her every day for awhile, to make sure that she keeps all right, but the hurt to her arm is simply a flesh wound, and will heal with only a very slight scar, if any.”
“Oh, Doctor!” cried Kitty, shuddering, “will her arm be scarred?”
“Probably not. She is so young, it will doubtless heal without a trace. But even should there be a tiny white mark it will amount to nothing. And, children, listen to this. I attach no blame either to King or Kitty. For children always have tickled each other’s toes, and probably always will. The whole affair was an accident, of course. But—I blame all three of you, individually and collectively, for playing with that sharp dagger.”
“But Kit is always so careful,” broke in Marjorie.
“I know it, and what good did it do? Carefulness cannot always guard against accidents. So promise me that you will never again play any game that includes the use of any dangerous instrument: dagger, knife, scissors, chisel, anything, in fact, that might do physical harm in case of accident.”
“Of course we promise,” said Marjorie, tearfully. “And we don’t have to promise. For we couldn’t play with such things after to-day. But, Doctor Mendel, it was all my fault, ’cause I got up the whole game.”
“Don’t say another word about whose fault it was,” interrupted the blunt doctor. “You all agree, I suppose, that it wasn’t Rosamond’s fault?”
Three astonished and indignant glances answered this question.
“Well, then, I hold that you three older children are equally to blame for playing with what is really a dangerous weapon. Each of you is old enough to know that you ought not to have done so—therefore you are all blameworthy to exactly the same degree. Am I clear?”
“Yes, indeed,” said Kitty, sighing. “It seems as if I was the worst. But if you put it that way, I s’pose we all ought to have known better.”