"Ben came in search of me, and led me back into grandfather's room, wet as I was, and struggling to get free. 'Put her to bed!' said father, in a voice which I knew must be obeyed. So I was undressed and laid in my trundle bed, and all that bright afternoon I had to lie there. My father wasn't over severe, children."—Grandma paused to say this, seeing disapproval in the eyes of her audience.—"You see I had been told not to help myself to a drink from that bucket because it was set too high for me; so, though I did not think of it at the time, of course it was disobedience. Well, I lay there, and the only occupation I had was to spell out the words of that text, to repeat to father the next morning. He sent it up to me all printed out on a card; I was just beginning to learn to read print, and I had to work hard, I tell you, to get it learned. But the worst was the next day. There was to be a ride on the lake in the afternoon, and I was to go. When I was all dressed, in my blue and white, made fresh for the occasion, father came in, took out of his pocket that dreadful comb, with the fly leaf of the psalm book wrapped around it, and said: 'Ruth, your mother and I have decided to give you a treat this afternoon while we are gone for our ride. You are to sit in this chair by the window, and make music on this comb; make it as loud and as much as you want to.'
"And if you'll believe it, they went away on their ride and left me sitting there!"
The children exclaimed over this, and Marion ventured to say she had no idea that Great-grandfather Wells could be so cruel; she was sure dear Grandfather Burton would never do such a thing; and as for papa, he never could.
"Cruel!" said Grandma Burton, with a flash in her eyes which made them look like Marion's. "Never you call him that; a better father never lived in the world; only times are changed, that is all. Mind you this: I never misbehaved in church again; and I could always repeat the real text, after that, instead of stopping to make one up."
Pansy.
WALTER TAYLOR'S FAULT.
WALTER talked too much. He was simply irrepressible. He could never keep anything to himself either of own affairs or of the affairs of other people; either of his own opinions or what he might know or guess of the opinions of others. No secret was safe with him. Even family affairs took occasional airings through this propensity for talking too much. This one fault was likely to bring Walter into no end of trouble first and last, and, what was worse, to bring other people into trouble. One does not like to be obliged to be always on guard lest some private affair slip out in the presence of a boy or girl who will set it flying through the town. Mr. Taylor sometimes found his business sadly interfered within this way.
One instance will illustrate; a neighbor had a piece of land to sell. It was not valuable land, but Mr. Taylor wanted it because if anyone bought it for a building spot it would cut off the view of the lake from the front piazza, and Mr. Taylor very indiscreetly remarked in Walter's presence, "I shall buy that corner at any price, for it is worth a great deal more to me than to anyone else."