But Charles soon found he was not so happy as he thought he should have been; he did not know the reason, but I will tell you why he was not happy. No one can be happy who is not good, and Charles was so naughty as to resolve not to obey his kind mother, who loved him so much.
Charles brought out all his toys to play with, but he soon grew weary of them, and he kicked them under the table, saying, "Nasty dull toys, I hate you, for you do not amuse me or make me happy. I will go to father, and ask him to give me something to please me that I am not used to."
But father was busy with some friends in the study, and could not attend to his wants. Charles was a rude, tiresome boy; so he stood by his father, and shook his chair, and pulled his sleeve, and teased him so much that his father at last grew angry, and turned him out of the room.
Then Charles stood and kicked at the door, and screamed with all his might, when one of the gentlemen said to him: "If you were my little boy, I would give you something to cry for." So Charles's father told him if he did not go away, he would come out of the study and whip him.
When Charles heard this, he ran away, for he was afraid of being beaten; but, instead of playing quietly with his toys, he went and laid under the great table in the hall and sulked and fretted till dinner-time.
When nurse came to call him to dinner, he said: "I won't come; Go away, ugly nurse!"
Then said nurse: "Master Charles, if you like to punish yourself by going without your dinner, no one will prevent you, I am sure."
Then Charles began to cry aloud, and tried to tear nurse's apron; but nurse told him he was a bad boy, and left him.
Now, when Clara sat down to dinner, she said to nurse: "Where is brother Charles? Why is he not here?"
"Miss Clara, he is a naughty child," said nurse, "and chooses to go without his dinner, thinking to vex us; but he hurts no one but himself with his perverse temper."