"Well, I do, and I told her grandmother so one day, but she did not thank me for it."
"No, I suppose not."
"I didn't do it for thanks; I did it just to give her a piece of my mind about that girl. She is the most mischievous and worrisome child I ever saw. The partition between our houses is very thin and many a time when I want to finish my morning sleep or take an afternoon nap, if Mrs. Harcourt is not at home, Annette will sing and recite at the top of her voice and run up and down the stairs as if a regiment of soldiers were after her."
"Annette is quite young, full of life and brimful of mischief, and girls of that age I have heard likened to persimmons before they are ripe; if you attempt to eat them they will pucker your mouth, but if you wait till the first frost touches them they are delicious. Have patience with the child, act kindly towards her, she may be slow in developing womanly sense, but I think that Annette has within her the making of a fine woman."
"Do you know what Annette wants?"
"Yes, I know what she wants; but what do you think she wants?"
"She wants kissing."
"I'd kiss her with a switch if she were mine."
"I do not think it wise to whip a child of her age."
"I'd whip her if she were as big as a house."