“Oh, it means never punishing, and only talking to you a long time when you’re naughty, and things like that,” Geraldine explained. “Mother didn’t know about it till she went to some lectures last winter. The lady that gave the lectures said children must never have their spirit broken, and must learn things by experience. Mother has a lot of books that tell how to bring children up that way, and she and the lady who gives the lectures write to each other about it, too. It’s great fun being brought up by the Law of Love, isn’t it, Jerry?”
“You bet!” responded Jerry, heartily. “It’s great never having to take any more nasty old medicine, too. Have you got any more of those chocolates along?”
Geraldine produced from her pocket a small box of chocolate creams, which she handed to her brother.
“Have one?” inquired Jerry, holding out the box to Gretel, and addressing her for the first time.
Gretel politely accepted a bonbon.
“Before Mother got to be a Mind Cure we were only allowed one chocolate after dinner,” Geraldine observed, complacently, putting a fat cream into her mouth. “Now we can buy all we want, and Mother says if they make us ill we shall learn by experience not to eat too many again. But they haven’t made us ill yet.”
At that moment they reached the entrance to the fort, and paused to wait for their elders, who were some distance behind. Mrs. Barlow greeted them with her usual serene smile.
“I hope my little boy and girl have been polite, and kind to their new friend,” she said, and Gretel thought her voice sounded as if she were reciting something out of a book. “It is a great pleasure to have a new friend, isn’t it?”
Neither Jerry nor Geraldine appeared to consider it necessary to answer this question, but their mother was evidently accustomed to their silence, for she did not look at all surprised, and in another moment they were all crossing the drawbridge into the fort.