DO AS YOU ARE BID.
Once upon a time there lived a poor woman who had five children. The eldest, Tom, went to school, but the others stayed at home with Jane, the eldest girl, to take care of them; Jane was seven years old.
One day Jane’s mother went out, telling Jane to be quiet, and careful with the little ones, and on no account to touch anything that could hurt them or herself. For some time after their mother went out the children were good and played with some old dolls. But presently Jane thought she would light a fire;—was she not naughty? She got on a chair to reach the matches from the mantel-piece, and in doing so, she knocked down an iron candlestick upon her brother Willy’s head. Willy screamed, and no wonder, for he had a great cut on his forehead. As soon as Willy stopped crying, Jane lighted the fire, and then she thought she would boil some potatoes; she found a saucepan, and popped them in.
The children crowded round her; she raised her arm to drive them off, over went the pan with the boiling water all over them. Jane’s ankle was terribly scalded, as well as Willy’s arm and Peter’s leg; and baby was scalded all over.
Just then in came mother. The doctor had to be sent for, and it was weeks before the children were well. So much for disobedience.
