BOTH BOYS SLEEPING SOUNDLY
“You sha’n’t do anything of the sort!” said Mrs. Burton. “Keep the dear little scamps from playing such pranks on any one who don’t happen to love them so well, and I’ll forgive them.”
“You don’t imagine for a moment that they knew what the result would be when they tied Terry to the chair, do you?” Mrs. Lawrence asked.
“Never!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, emphatically, “but they did it, and it might have happened somewhere else, with people who didn’t love them so well, and what would they have thought?”
“She means that strangers would have imagined your boys a couple of little boors, Nell,” said Mr. Burton to his sister.
“Strangers know nothing whatever about other people’s children,” said Mrs. Lawrence with dignity, “and they should therefore have nothing to do with them and pass no opinions upon them. No one estimates children by what they are; they only judge by the amount of trouble they make.”
“Now you’ve done it, Mistress Alice,” said Mr. Burton to his wife. “It is better to meet a she-bear that is robbed of her whelps than a mother whose children are criticized by any one but herself.”
“I’ve done it!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Who translated my quiet remark into something offensive. Besides, you’ve misapplied Scripture only to suggest things worse yet. If I’m not mistaken, the proverb about the she-bear and her whelps has something in it about a fool and his folly. Do you mean to insinuate such insulting ideas about your sister and her darlings?”
But no amount of badinage could make Mrs. Lawrence forget that some implied advice was secreted in her sister-in-law’s carefully worded remark, so she continued,
“I’m extremely sorry they had to go to you, but I couldn’t imagine what better to do. I wish Tom could have staid at home all the while to take care of them. I hope, if we ever die, they may follow us at once. Nothing is so dreadful as the idea of one’s children being perpetually misunderstood by some one else, and having their honest little hearts hardened and warped just when they should be cared for most patiently and tenderly.”