“My precious boy! I couldn’t bear to deprive you of the beautiful rockets and Roman candles which Mr. Sanford and your papa have given you for the Fourth! There must be some easier punishment; let us think.”
Jimmy looked relieved.
“Didn’t Aunt Vi give you some money to spend for candy?”
“Yes, mamma; two bits,” (twenty-five cents). “But I want it! Gilly Irwin is coming in the morning to go to the candy stores with me. O mamma, please!”
“But, my dear, if I should pass by your faults you would forget them, and then you wouldn’t improve. I really think you ought to go without your Fourth of July candy.”
“Oh—Oh—Oh!”
“I shall not take away the money, however. You may simply drop it in your bank.”
Jimmy twisted his neck and twirled his fingers, but said not a word.
Two people in this world were always right, he thought,—mamma and papa. Always right, and never changed their minds; so it wasn’t of the slightest use to tease.
But Fourth of July, and not a speck of candy! Oh, dear!