"If she had minded her mother——" from Albert Eddie.
"And hurried on home with the perambulator——" from Maud. Proof not only of a worthy attitude on their part towards the admonition of the tale, but of an evident comprehension of what a perambulator was.
But Aunt Cordelia, not always a free agent, was no longer permitting so much visiting.
"You are letting her actually live on the street," said Aunt Katie.
"With any sort of children," supplemented Aunt Louise.
Undoubtedly Aunt Cordelia came the nearest to understanding there is another side to these affairs. "Sometimes I think she's lonesome," she said.
"Those children who are all the day,
Allowed to wander out,
And only waste their time in play,
Or running wild about——"
said Aunt Katie. Aunt Louise finished it:
"Who do not any school attend,
But trifle as they will,
Are almost certain in the end,
To come to something ill."
And while it almost would seem that Aunt Cordelia was being admonished too, and from the little book, in the light of what followed, it appeared that Aunt Katie, Aunt Louise, and the little book were right.