“Do you think that forbidding them would put an end to them?”
“Merely forbidding might not do so, but exacting some penalty for such disobedience would probably make them think twice before they disobeyed again.”
“Did they disobey this time?” Miss Preston asked quietly.
Mrs. Stone looked a trifle disconcerted as she answered:
“Possibly it was not direct disobedience, but it certainly savored of deceit.”
“I should be glad to have you ask any girl who has become a member of that comical C. C. C. if she thinks she has been guilty of deceit, and I’ll venture to say that she will look you squarely in the eyes and say: ‘Deceit! How could that fun be deceitful?’”
“Do you not think that it may lead to other undesirable lines of conduct?”
“It may lead to other sorts of innocent fun,” was the dry remark. “Mrs. Stone, were you ever young? Surely, you have not forgotten what the world looked like then. Wasn’t it invariably the thing you were least expected to do that it gave you the most satisfaction to do? Listen to me one moment, for, while I appreciate your sincere interest in my work and myself, I cannot allow you to run off with the idea that I regard my girls as prone to deceitful actions. It is just fun, pure and simple, and the natural result of happy, healthy girlhood. Far better let it have a safe vent than try to suppress it, and take very strong chances of directing it into less desirable channels. At the worst, a deranged stomach can follow, and a glass of bi-carbonate of soda-water is a simple remedy, if not an over-delightful one. I knew all about the feast several days ago, and took my own way of letting the girls know that I’d found it out. It was no use to forbid it for that night, for, just as sure as fate, they would have planned it for another, and devoured a lot of stuff far less wholesome than the contents of Toinette’s box and my tub. As it was, we all had a good time, and I’ll warrant you that the next time the C. C. C.’s meet I’ll get a hint regarding the tub, at any rate.”
“Perhaps it will prove so. I trust so, at all events. You are a far wiser woman than I am.”
“Perhaps no wiser, but better able to recall the things which helped to make my girlhood a sunny one, and school frolics played no small part in them.”