“Well, don’t you think a sideache is as bad as a headache?”
Mrs. Burton guessed the sequel, but refrained from replying.
“An awful sideache,” Budge continued, “when a little boy’s side has been bumped real hard by a great big mountain side.”
Mrs. Burton bit her upper lip and reached for Budge’s mug, which the young man accommodatingly pushed toward her, saying:
“And I think when it’s a little boy that’ got to drink it ’cause he’s sick, there ought to be lots an’ lots of sugar in it, to keep it from being too strong.”
“TOO MUCH TEA ISN’T GOOD FOR PEOPLE, IS IT?”
Budge’ mug was filled according to his liking, Mr. Burton’s eyes dancing over it so busily that they could not stop when Mrs. Burton accidentally detected them. A few moments of adult silence was the natural result, and the boys improved the opportunity to disappear without being questioned; after which Mr. Burton, starting for the city, gave shortly the monosyllable “No!” in reply to the question whether he should bring anything home.
Mrs. Burton found herself soon in the depth of another inspection of her career as a manager of children, and began to realize that she was as faulty in being too indulgent as she was in being too severe. Recalling the many tricks of the children to overcome her rules, she could not remember a single one at which they had not succeeded, and the realization of this was as mortifying to her sense of duty as it was to her pride. To be firm when her sense of humor was touched was a phase of ability of which she found herself to be as destitute as people usually are; but the existence of such a failing she had never even imagined before, and it doubled her sense of responsibility and—humility.
But the latter quality soon was lost in one which comes more naturally, and is always fully developed—pride. What wouldn’t she have given to have that breakfast-scene to manage again? To think that she, who had in every other department of life, discerned sly attempts afar off, and successfully circumvented them, should have been outwitted by two very small boys! Oh, for just one more attempt by either of them! Mrs. Burton instinctively bit her lip until pain caused her to stop. Upon this, at any rate, she was determined—she would not only prevent her nephews accomplishing their artfully laid purposes, but she would explain to them how dishonest such attempts were, and endeavor to shame them into ingenuousness.