"'Yes, papa!'
"'And don't bring the old ones; they're done for; bring the pair Susy worked for me.'
"'Yes, papa, all right.'
"'Ah, thank you, old fellow! When I am thirteen and you are fifty, I'll do as much for you. How nice it is to have a pair of young legs at one's service!'
"Now, all this may seem small business, but this boy is being educated into refinement, and courtesy, and kindliness, or the reverse."
"Curiously enough," said Belle, "without having any conscious theory on the subject, I have always acted on this principle with my children."
"Are children, then, mere monkeys, imitating all they see done?" asked Laura.
"They are not," was Mrs. Grey's reply. "Some children are so original that they cannot imitate. They think and act for themselves. They are hard to deal with in most cases, each needing a mother all to itself. But they are the exception, not the rule. Most of us owe almost everything to unconscious influence."
But all serious talk was for the time put an end to, by a curious little incident. One of the nurses entered the room, leading by the hand Laura's baby-girl, who had just learned to walk. Another baby, who had not yet attained this art, was creeping about, picking up and putting into its mouth everything it could find; and no sooner did the older child perceive this, than down it went on all-fours, and began to creep too, to the great amusement of all present.
"How perfectly ridiculous!" said Laura, snatching up and kissing her child.