"Yes, I suppose so. Then she kissed her baby. He put his arms around her neck, and cried to go too; but she could not take him."
"I s'pose he cried 'cause he 'xpected that awful girl was a-going to shake him," said Dotty, indignantly.
"I cannot tell you precisely what Harriet did to him; but when the father and mother got home, that darling boy was moaning in great pain. They sent for the doctor, who said his spine was injured, and perhaps he would never walk again; and, indeed, he never did."
"O, mamma! mamma Parlin!"
"Yes, my child; and it is supposed that Harriet must have hurt him in one of her fits of rage."
Dotty's face had grown very white.
"O, mamma, what did the folks do with Harriet?"
"They took her to court, and tried her for abusing the little boy. They could not prove that she was really guilty, though everybody believed she was."
"I know what 'guilty' means, mamma; it means hung."
"No, dear; if she hurt the baby she was guilty, whether she was punished for it or not."