“I should be glad to have you do so.”
“If Ephraim takes him into his family, he will have an excellent home.”
“That is what we desire for all our party.”
“Do you generally succeed?”
“Very generally. We seldom receive complaints from the children we have placed. They are treated kindly almost without exception.”
“How about the other parties? Do they often prefer complaints of the children?”
“Sometimes, but not often. Considering the training our children have had in the city streets, they conduct{44} themselves remarkably well in their new homes. Removed from the temptations and privations of the city, their better natures assert themselves, and they behave as well as ordinary children. In fact, I may say that most of the complaints that come to us are of a trivial nature. People forget that our boys are no more perfect than their own, and if now and then they pelt the cows, or leave the turkeys out in the rain, that hardly indicates a depraved heart.”
Mr. Taylor smiled.
“I have heard of such things, myself,” he said. “I suspect boys are about the same now that they were fifty years ago.”
“And will be fifty years hence. Of course, they will always need restraint, and, if they do mischief, they must pay the penalty. Still, if a boy is simply mischievous, I don’t think he can be considered a hopeless case.”