“Why,—I don't know.”
“Did you suppose it gave him pleasure?”
“Why, no,” said Dwight, looking down.
“And did not you know that it gave him pain? Now, tell me, honestly.”
“Why, yes, mother, I knew it plagued him a little; but then I only did it for fun.”
“I know it,” said Madam Rachel; “and that is the very thing that makes me so sorry for it.”
“Why, mother?” said Dwight in a tone of surprise.
“Because if you had given Caleb four times as much pain for any other reason, I should not have thought half so much of it, as to have you trouble him for fun. If it had been to do him any good, or to do any body else any good, or from mistake, or mere thoughtlessness, I should not have thought so much of it; but to do it for fun!”
Here Madam Rachel stopped, as if she did not know what to say.
“I rather think, mother, it was only thoughtlessness,” said David, by way of excusing Dwight.