“But you were bad first, Ethel.”
“H’m! If I ask her to forgive me she’ll think she was good!”
Mary looked at stubborn Ethel sorrowfully. Oh, how hard it was to make children repent!
“Perhaps I’d better leave her by herself to think. Mamma does that sometimes.” Then aloud: “Ethel, I’m now going into the kitchen, and I wish you to sit here and think till I come back.”
“No, you mustn’t; my mamma won’t allow you to shut me up, Flaxie!”
“But I’m not shutting you up; I only leave you to think.”
“Don’t know how to think.”
“Yes, you do, Ethel, you think every time you wink.”
“Well, may I wink at the clock then?” asked the child, relenting, for it was one of her delights to sit and watch the minute-hand steal slowly over the clock’s white face.