"You silly, provoking little puss! needles don't grow. Show me where you put them."
"Tan't dey's all round and round in de gwond."
Mildred took up a bit of stick and poked about in the fresh earth for a minute or two, then remarking to herself that it was as bootless as hunting in a haystack, went into the house with the report of the hapless fate of the missing articles.
The boys were there before her, penitently exhibiting the ruined cord and promising to do so no more.
"We didn't fink, mother," pleaded Don, looking up in her face with such a droll mixture of fun and entreaty in his roguish blue eyes, that she could not refrain from giving him a kiss and a smile as she answered, "Ah, my boys must learn to think and not take mother's things without leave. Now run away to your plays and try to be good children."
"Mother, I do think you're a little too easy with them," Mildred said in a slightly vexed tone.
"Perhaps; but if I make a mistake, is it not far better to do so on the side of mercy than of severity?"
"I suppose so; I shouldn't like to see them whipped."
Then laughingly she told the story of Fan's doings, and as needles and cord must be replaced, put on her bonnet and sallied forth upon the errand.