“I don’t care much whether they are or not, myself,” said Mr. Orange.
“James, dear!”
“You dote upon them, you know,” said Mr. Orange. “That’s another thing.”
“I do,” said Mrs. Orange rapturously. “Oh, I do!”
“I don’t,” said Mr. Orange.
“But, I was thinking, James, love,” said Mrs. Orange, pressing his arm, “whether our dear, good, kind Mrs. Lemon would like them to stay the holidays with her.”
“If she was paid for it, I dare say she would,” said Mr. Orange.
“I adore them, James,” said Mrs. Orange, “but suppose we pay her, then.”
This was what brought the country to such perfection, and made it such a delightful place to live in. The grown-up people (that would be in other countries) soon left off being allowed any holidays after Mr. and Mrs. Orange tried the experiment; and the children (that would be in other countries) kept them at school as long as ever they lived, and made them do whatever they were told.
This story was written about two years before the death of Dickens, so it represents his maturest thought. Its great fundamental motive was Froebel’s motto, “Come, let us live with our children.” It was a trenchant, though humorous criticism of the methods of treating children practised by adults, at home and at school. Mrs. Orange’s adoration for children, while at the same time she was proposing to keep them at school during the holidays, is very suggestive to those mothers who in society talk so much about their “precious darlings,” but who keep them in the nursery so that they have no share in the family life. The practice of calling children bad and describing their supposed evil propensities in the presence of others is also condemned in this story.