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diff --git a/old/52298-0.txt b/old/52298-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6e2cdb9..0000000 --- a/old/52298-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9211 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Budge & Toddie, by John Habberton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Budge & Toddie - Helen's Babies at Play - -Author: John Habberton - -Illustrator: Tod Dwiggins - -Release Date: June 10, 2016 [EBook #52298] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDGE & TODDIE *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards, Les Galloway and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - BUDGE AND TODDIE - OR - HELEN’S BABIES AT PLAY - -[Illustration: THE MAID’S GENERAL CARE OF THE BOYS] - - -[Illustration: Cartoon representation of Title Page] - - BUDGE & TODDIE - - OR - - HELEN’S BABIES - AT PLAY - - Being an account - of the further doings of these - marvelously precocious children. - - By JOHN HABBERTON - - AUTHOR OF HELEN’S BABIES, etc., etc.. - - With fifty illustrations by TOD DWIGGINS - - GROSSET AND DUNLAP - NEW YORK - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY - - GROSSET & DUNLAP - - _BUDGE & TODDIE_ - - - - -[Illustration: DEDICATION] - -The Author of “Helen’s Babies” dedicated that book “To the Parents -of the Best Children in the World”; and his commercial hint appended -thereunto was so generally taken, that he is impelled by selfishness to -seek even a larger class to which to inscribe the present volume. He -therefore dedicates it to - -=Those Who Know How to Manage Other People’s Children=. - - - - -Introduction - - -The many indulgent men and women who liked “Helen’s Babies” so well -that they wished they had written it themselves would have changed -their minds could they have been compelled to read criticisms of a -certain kind that were inflicted upon the author as soon as his name -and mail address became known. Some people were in such haste to -relieve their minds that they rushed into print with their charges and -specifications, all of which were of service to the book, as so much -free advertising; at least, the publisher said it was, and his opinion -on such a matter was entitled to special respect. - -Some of the critics were parents of the earnest, forceful, but -matter-of-fact kind that does not doubt its own infallibility in family -government and regards all children as scions of one unchanging stock -and needing to be treated exactly alike, no matter in what direction -their tendencies may be. A larger number were unmarried persons with -theories of their own which had not been marred in whole or in part by -anything so utterly commonplace and exasperating as experience. These -good people, whether uncles or aunts of children over whom they were -not allowed to exercise any authority, or mere bachelors and maids -unattached to anybody’ babies of any kind, joined in abusing Budge and -Toddie as the worst trained children that ever were tossed into print -and in declaring the boys’s Uncle Harry incomparably incapable as a -disciplinarian, unless, indeed, the parents of Budge and Toddie were -still less competent to bring up children in the way they should go. - -Still another class was composed of professional teachers who had -taken long, serious courses of instruction in juvenile humanity, its -nature, possibilities, limitations, duties and mental conditions at -specified ages. Apparently these regarded a child as something created -for the special purpose of being subjected to personal, exact and -continuous domination by adults, and to be let alone only when the -adults themselves wearied of the strain. To prove the unfitness of the -boys’s uncle and their parents to have the care of children they quoted -fluently from standard authorities on education, all the way from -Aristotle, concerning whose children history is silent, to Froebel, the -founder of the kindergarten system, who was childless. - -Others who joined in the effort to analyze this literary butterfly with -a mallet were of the class that could not understand why the misdeeds -and shortcomings of Budge and Toddie were not treated with reproofs and -warnings deduced from certain catechisms, of which infant depravity is -a popular feature. And there were the people that never read a book but -on compulsion. Anyone errs greatly who believes that this class lacks -intelligence, for the world has contained many wondrously clever people -who could not read or write; nevertheless, men and women who seldom -read anything do take any book seriously, no matter if it deserves -as little attention as last year’s almanac. Some of them sought out -the author, after reading “Helen’s Babies,” to tell him in good faith -what they would have done to Budge and Toddie to correct some alleged -deficiencies. - -It was useless to assure any of these unexpected critics that the -author was not himself the hero of his story, or that he had never been -manager of other people’s children when he was a bachelor, unless -unwillingly and for a few moments at a time, or that his book was not -in any sense a disclosure of the methods he would have followed had -such a responsibility been thrust upon him, or that it was no longer -fashionable for a man to write an amusing sketch for the purpose -of covertly inculcating a lot of moral principles, like so many -sugar-coated pills, or that for some years he had been joint owner of -some children to whose mental and moral well-being he had given more -thought and care than to his business interests and almost everything -else that men live for, and consequently he might be regarded as beyond -the need of volunteer counsel and admonition. - -The criticisms continued until the author repented of having written -the story that was the cause of them. But one day a publisher asked -for some more--much more--about Budge and Toddie, to be published -serially, and the inducements he offered were so timely and convincing -that regrets and critics alike were laughed at. The stock of available -material was unlimited, for had not many mothers reproached the author -for not having put into print the tales they had told him of their -own boys’s doings--tales which they knew were far funnier than any -recorded in “Helen’s Babies”--and had not many other mothers given -him capital stories with positive orders to put them in shape for -publication and do so quickly? Besides, he had a store of similar -material in his own mind. How to use the aggregate mass of incident did -not readily appear to his mind’s eye, for he had been too long engaged, -professionally, in picking other men’s books to pieces to have found -time to learn how best to put together a book of his own. He had not -a novelist’s privilege of choosing from many meritorious models, for -tales about children, yet written principally to be read by adults, -were very few and of doubtful quality. - -Suddenly out of nowhere, apparently, came the suggestion that the -possible experiences of some one, any one, of the critics who knew -exactly how other people’s children should be managed would be a good -framework for the desired story. Naturally the person most confident of -such ability would be the best character for the purpose, so it should -be a young, whole-hearted woman of positive nature, who loved children -dearly but had none of her own to disarrange her theories. Facts -have always been the most pestilent enemies of theories, and children -are facts, sometimes stubborn facts, always startling ones when they -encounter any theory not founded on the rock of experience. - -So the tale was begun in haste, as well as in glee over its probable -effect on some of the men and women who had been burdening the author’s -ears and mail-box with criticism and counsel. Whether any of them ever -read a line of it when it appeared serially, or afterward in book -form, remains unknown; probably it is better so, for the author was -thereby spared the meanness of exultation over men and women quite as -well-meaning as himself, or spared the humiliation of discovering that -he had done his work so badly that they were unconscious of what he had -attempted to do. And, really, none of them was any wiser in his own -conceit than was the author himself before he had any children of his -own yet was sure he knew how other people’ children should be trained, -admonished, controlled, restrained, disciplined and otherwise tormented -by their parents. - -The new book was spared a depressing experience of its predecessor, -for, instead of being declined by almost every reputable publisher -in the United States, it was demanded by several before the second -instalment appeared and the number of requests for it increased week by -week as the serial issue continued. - -But, like almost everything else from the same pen, “Other People’s -Children” was written so hastily and put to press so carelessly that it -abounded in repetitions and other errors that made cultivated readers -grieve, so an opportunity to allow the book to drop out of print was -welcomed by the author. - -Nevertheless he was compelled to believe his friends and enemies when -they insisted that “Other People’s Children” was an abler and more -amusing story than “Helen’s Babies,” for their opinion agreed with -his own. So he has responded gladly to the request of the present -publishers that he should give the copy a careful revision. It is -extremely unlikely that any reader of the old edition will detect any -alterations in the new, for nothing has been added nor has anything of -consequence been taken out; yet the author and publishers know that -more than a thousand corrections and emendations have been made and -that almost all of them were needed. - - - - -CONTENTS - - Page - CHAPTER I 1 - CHAPTER II 32 - CHAPTER III 71 - CHAPTER IV 103 - CHAPTER V 135 - CHAPTER VI 165 - CHAPTER VII 195 - CHAPTER VIII 224 - CHAPTER IX 251 - CHAPTER X 277 - CHAPTER XI 302 - CHAPTER XII 332 - FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - The Maid’s General Care of the Boys _Frontispiece._ - - Mrs. Burton Brushed a Tiny Crumb from Her _Page_ - Robe _Facing_ 4 - - “It’s Only Jus’ About So Long” 9 - - “We’s Makin’ Pickles for You” 17 - - “I Got Into a Hen’s Nesht Where There Was Some - Eggs” 23 - - “Isn’t It Lovaly?” _Facing_ 30 - - “Ragged, Dirty Men Talk to My Papa Sometimes” 37 - - “Yes, an’ We Put a Little Stone at the Head of the - Grave” 43 - - “Don’t Either of You Move Out of a Chair?” 47 - - “--But I Didn’t Know Ashes Made ’Em” 53 - - “Splashin’ In the Bathtub” 59 - - “Jump!” Shouted Mr. Burton _Facing_ 66 - - “Cats,” Uttered Mr. Burton 75 - - Both Started In Chase of It 79 - - “Tell Me What You Think About It” _Facing_ 92 - - “We Got Three or Four Nice Bunches” 99 - - “So I Putted Crosses on the Door” 101 - - “Then You Can Only Have One Bite,” Said Budge 107 - - “Where Did the Cards Come From?” 113 - - He Kicked, Pushed, Screamed and Roared 119 - - The Jardiniére Came Down With a Crash 125 - - “Threw a Mean Old Dirty Carpet On Top of It” _Facing_ 130 - - Toddie Playing Bear 137 - - Budge Taking Up the Collection _Facing_ 146 - - Terry 155 - - The General Fell Into the Water _Facing_ 160 - - “Dreamin’ I was In a Candy-Store” 167 - - “Wonder How Big Moons Got to be Little Again” 173 - - “A Cow Readin’ An Atlas” 175 - - “How Do They Get Things to Eat for the Angels?” 181 - - The Squeak of the Violin and the Wail of a Badly - Played Wind Instrument 187 - - Uncle Harry’s Frantic Examination of His Beloved - Violin 193 - - Both Boys Tumbled Into the Room 199 - - Toddie Drank About Two Swallows of Water _Facing_ 204 - - Suddenly Heard a Splash and a Howl 211 - - Budge Enlivened the Dust of the Roadway 215 - - Further Progress Was Arrested _Facing_ 222 - - “Well,” Said Budge “’Cause You’re Different” 227 - - Pretending to be Horses _Facing_ 232 - - Budge Lost His Balance 239 - - Two Inquiring Faces Hanging Over the Bread-Pan 243 - - A Loud Report Startled the Party _Facing_ 246 - - “Too Much Tea Isn’t Good for People, Is It?” 253 - - “When We Cooked ’Em, What Do You Think?” _Facing_ 256 - - Budge and Toddie Playing Doctor 265 - - Down the Stairs, Dashed Terry 271 - - “Why Aunt Alice! How Did You Upset That - Table?” 275 - - A Red Pepper Experience _Facing_ 288 - - Candy Making 295 - - The Dandelion 301 - - “We’re Goin’ Home” 303 - - “Some Nashty Medshin” 313 - - “Izhe a Shotted Soldier” _Facing_ 322 - - Both Boys Sleeping Soundly 333 - - The Obedient Member of the Family _Facing_ 340 - - Making Them What I Would Like Them To Be 351 - - A Little Visitor at the Burtons’s 357 - - - - -BUDGE AND TODDIE - -OR - -HELEN’S BABIES AT PLAY - - -The writer of a certain much-abused book sat at breakfast one morning -with his wife, and their conversation turned, as it had many times -before, upon a brace of boys who had made a little fun for the lovers -of trifling stories and a great deal of trouble for their uncle. Mrs. -Burton, thanks to that womanly generosity which, like a garment, covers -the faults of men who are happily married, was so proud of her husband -that she admired even his book; she had made magnificent attempts to -defend it at points where it was utterly indefensible; but her critical -sense had been frequently offended by her husband’s ignorance regarding -the management of children. On the particular morning referred to, this -critical sense was extremely active. - -“To know, Harry,” said Mrs. Burton, “that you gave so little true -personal attention to Budge and Toddie, while you professed to love -them with the tenderness peculiar to blood-relationship, is to wonder -whether some people do not really expect children to grow as the forest -trees grow, utterly without care or training.” - -“I spent most of my time,” Mr. Burton replied, attacking his steak with -more energy than was called for at the breakfast-table of a man whose -business hours were easy, “I spent most of my time in saving their -parents’ property and their own lives from destruction. When had I an -opportunity to do anything else?” - -A smile of conscious superiority, the honesty of which made it none the -less tantalizing, passed lightly over Mrs. Burton’s features as she -replied: - -“All the while. You should have explained to them the necessity for -order, cleanliness and self-restraint. Do you imagine that their pure -little hearts would not have received it and acted upon it?” - -Mr. Burton offered a Yankee reply. - -“Do you suppose, my dear,” said he “that the necessity for all these -virtues was never brought to their attention? Did you never hear the -homely but significant saying, that you may lead a horse to water, but -you can’t make him drink?” - -With the promptness born of true intuition, Mrs. Burton went around -this verbal obstacle instead of attempting to reduce it. - -“You might at least have attempted to teach them something of the -inner significance of things,” said Mrs. Burton. “Then they would have -brought a truer sense to the contemplation of everything about them.” - -Mr. Burton gazed almost worshipfully at this noble creature whose -impulses led her irresistibly to the discernment of the motives of -action, and with becoming humility he asked: - -“Will you tell me how you would have explained the inner significance -of dirt, so that those boys could have been trusted to cross a dry road -without creating for themselves a halo which should be more visible -than luminous?” - -“Don’t trifle about serious matters, Harry,” said Mrs. Burton, after -a hasty but evident search for a reply. “You know that conscience and -æsthetic sense lead to correct lives all persons who subject themselves -to their influence, and you know that the purest natures are the most -susceptible. If men and women, warped and mistrained though their -earlier lives may have been, grow into sweetness and light under right -incentives, what may not be done with those of whom it was said, ‘Of -such is the kingdom of heaven’?” - -Mr. Burton instinctively bowed his head at his wife’s last words, but -raised it speedily as the lady uttered an opinion which was probably -suggested by the holy sentiment she had just expressed. - -“Then you allowed them to be dreadfully irreverent in their -conversations about sacred things,” said she. - -“Really, my dear,” expostulated the victim, “you must charge up some of -these faults to the children’s parents. I had nothing to do with the -formation of the children’s habits, and their peculiar habit of talking -about what you call sacred things is inherited directly from their -parents. Their father says he doesn’t believe it was ever intended that -mere mention of a man in the Bible should be a patent of sacredness, -and Helen agrees with him.” - -[Illustration: MRS. BURTON BRUSHED A TINY CRUMB FROM HER ROBE] - -Mrs. Burton coughed. It is surprising what a multitude of suggestions -can be conveyed by a gentle cough. - -“I suppose,” she said slowly, as if musing aloud, “that inheritance -_is_ the method by which children obtain many objectionable qualities -for which they themselves are blamed, poor little things. I don’t know -how to sympathize in the least degree with this idea of Tom’s and -Helen’s, for the Maytons, and my mother’s family, too, have always been -extremely reverent toward sacred things. You are right in laying the -fault to them instead of the boys, but I cannot see how they can bear -to inflict such a habit upon innocent children and I must say that I -can’t see how they can tolerate it in each other.” - -Mrs. Burton raised her napkin, and with fastidious solicitude brushed -a tiny crumb or two from her robe as she finished this remark. Dear -creature! She needed to display a human weakness to convince her -husband that she was not altogether too good for earth, and this -implication of a superiority of origin, the darling idea of every woman -but Eve, answered the purpose. Her spouse endured the infliction as -good husbands always do in similar cases, though he somewhat hastily -passed his coffee-cup for more sugar, and asked, in a tone in which -self-restraint was distinctly perceptible: - -“What else, my dear?” - -Mrs. Burton suddenly comprehended the situation; she left her chair, -made the one atonement which is always sufficient between husband and -wife, and said: - -“Only one thing, you dear old boy, and even that is a repetition, I -suppose. It’ only this: parents are quite as remiss as loving uncles in -training their children, instead of merely watching them. The impress -of the older and wiser mind should be placed upon the child from the -earliest dawn of its intelligence, so that the little one’s shall be -determined, instead of being left to chance.” - -“And the impress is readily made, of course, even by a love-struck -uncle on a short vacation?” - -“Certainly. Even wild animals are often tamed at sight by master-minds.” - -“But suppose these impressible little beings should have opinions and -wishes and intentions of their own?” - -“They should be overcome by the adult mind.” - -“And if they object?” - -“That should make no difference,” said Mrs. Burton, gaining suddenly an -inch or two in stature and queenly beauty. - -“Do you mean that you would really make them obey you?” asked Mr. -Burton, with a gaze as reverent as if the answer would be by absolute -authority. - -“Certainly!” replied the lady, adding a grace or two to her fully -aroused sense of command. - -“By Jove!” exclaimed her husband, “what a remarkable coincidence! That -is just what I determined upon when I first took charge of those boys. -And yet----” - -“And yet you failed,” said Mrs. Burton. “How I wish I had been in your -place!” - -“So do I, my dear,” said Mr. Burton; “or, at least, I would wish so if -I didn’t realize that if you had had charge of those children instead -of I, there wouldn’t have occurred any of the blessed accidents that -helped to make you Mrs. Burton.” - -The lady smiled lovingly, but answered: - -“I may have the opportunity yet; in fact--oh, it’s too bad that I -haven’t yet learned how to keep anything secret from you--I have -arranged for just such an experiment. And I’m sure that Helen and Tom, -as well as you, will learn that I am right.” - -“I suppose you will try it while I’m away on my spring trip among the -dealers?” queried Mr. Burton hastily. “Or,” he continued, “if not, I -know you love me well enough to give me timely notice, so I can make a -timely excuse to get away from home. When is it to be?” - -Mrs. Burton replied by a look which her husband was failing to -comprehend when there came help to him from an unexpected source. -There were successive and violent rings of the door-bell, and as many -tremendous pounds, apparently with a brick, at the back door. Then -there ensued a violent slamming of doors, a trampling in the hall as of -many war-horses, and a loud, high-pitched shout of, “I got in fyst,” -and a louder, deeper one of “So did I!” And then, as Mr. and Mrs. -Burton sprang from their chairs with faces full of apprehension and -inquiry the dining-room door opened and Budge and Toddie shot in as if -propelled from a catapult. - -“Hello!” exclaimed Budge, by way of greeting, as Toddie wriggled from -his aunt’ embrace, and seized the tail of the family terrier. “What do -you think? We’ve got a new baby, and Tod and I have come down here to -stay for a few days; papa told us to. Don’t seem to me you had a very -nice breakbux,” concluded Budge, after a critical survey of the table. - -“And it’s only jus’ about so long,” said Toddie, from whose custody -the dog Terry had hurriedly removed his tail by the conclusive -proceeding of conveying his whole body out of doors--“only jus’ so -long!” repeated Toddie, placing his pudgy hands a few inches apart, and -contracting every feature of his countenance, as if to indicate the -extreme diminutiveness of the new heir. - -[Illustration: “IT’S ONLY JUS’ ABOUT SO LONG”.] - -Mrs. Burton kissed her nephews and her husband with more than usual -fervor and inquired as to the sex of the new inhabitant. - -“Oh, that’s the nicest thing about it,” said Budge. “It’s a girl. I’m -tired of such lots of boys--Tod is as bad as a whole lot, you know, -when I have to take care of him. Only, now we’re bothered, ’cause we -don’t know what to name her. Mamma told us to think of the loveliest -thing in all the world, so I thought about squash-pie right away; but -Tod thought of molasses candy, and then papa said neither of ’em would -do for the name of a little girl. I don’t see that they’re not as good -as roses and violets, and all the other things that they name little -girls after.” - -During the delivery by Budge of this information, Toddie had -been steadily exclaiming, “I--I--I--I--I--I----!” like a prudent -parliamentarian who wants to make sure of recognition by the chair. In -his excitement, he failed to realize for some seconds that his brother -had concluded, but he finally exclaimed: “An’ I--I--I--I--I’m goin’ -to give her my turtle, an’ show her how to make mud pies wif currants -in ’em.” - -“Huh!” said Budge, with inexpressible contempt in his tones. “Girls -don’t like such things. I’m going to give her my blue necktie, and -take her riding in the goat-carriage.” - -“Well, anyhow,” said Toddie, with the air of a man who was wresting -victory from the jaws of defeat, “I’ll give her caterpillars. I know -she’ll be sure to like them, ’cause they’e got lovely fur jackets all -heavenly-green an’ red an’ brown, like ladies’s djesses.” - -“And you don’t know what lots of prayin’ Tod and me had to do to get -that baby,” said Budge. “My! It just makes me ache to think about it! -Whole days and weeks and months!” - -“Yesh,” said Toddie. “An’ Budgie sometimes was goin’ to stop, ’caush -he fought the Lord was too busy to listen to us. But I just told him -that the Lord was our biggesht papa, an’ just what papas ought to -be, an’ papa at home was just like papas ought to be. An’ the baby -comeded. Oh! Yesh, an’ we had to be awful good too. Why don’t you be -real good an’ pray lots? Then maybe you’ll get a dear, sweet, little -baby!” - -The temporary reappearance of the dog, Terry, put an end to the -dispute, for both boys moved toward him, which movement soon developed -into a lively chase. Being not unacquainted with the boys, and knowing -their tender mercies to be much like those of the wicked, Terry sought -and found a forest retreat and the boys came panting back and sat -dejectedly upon the well-curb. Mrs. Burton, who stood near the window, -leaning upon her husband’s shoulder, looked tenderly upon them, and -murmured: - -“The poor little darlings are homesick already. Now is the time for my -reign to begin. Boys!” - -Both boys looked up at the window. Mrs. Burton gracefully framed a -well-posed picture of herself as she leaned upon the sill, and her -husband hung admiringly upon her words. “Boys, come into the house, and -let’s have a lovely talk about mamma.” - -“Don’t want to talk about mamma,” said Toddie, a suspicion of a snarl -modifying his natural tones. “Wantsh the dog.” - -“But mammas and babies are so much nicer than dogs,” pleaded Mrs. -Burton, after a withering glance at her husband, who had received -Toddie’s remark with a titter. - -“Well, I don’t think so,” said Budge, reflectively. “We can always see -mamma and the baby, but Terry we can only see once in a while, and he -never wants to see us, somehow.” - -“My dear,” said Mr. Burton humbly, “if you care for the experience -of another, my advice is that you let those boys come out of their -disappointment themselves. They’ll do it in their own way in spite of -you.” - -“There are experiences,” remarked Mrs. Burton, with chilling dignity, -“which are useful only through the realization of their worthlessness. -Anyone can let children alone. Darlings, did you ever hear the story of -little Patty Pout?” - -“No,” growled Budge, in a manner that would have discouraged any one -not conscious of having been born to rule. - -“Well, Patty Pout was a nice little girl,” said Mrs. Burton, “except -that she would sulk whenever things did not happen just as she wanted -them to. One day she had a stick of candy, and was playing ‘lose and -find’ with it; but she happened to put it away so carefully that she -forgot where it was, so she sat down to sulk, and suddenly there came -up a shower and melted that stick of candy, which had been just around -the corner all the while.” - -“Is Terry just around the corner?” asked Toddie, jumping up, while -Budge suddenly scraped the dirt with the toes of his shoes and said: - -“If Patty’d et up her candy while she had it, she wouldn’t have had any -trouble.” - -Mr. Burton hurried into the back parlor to laugh comfortably, and -without visible disrespect, while Mrs. Burton remembered that it was -time to ring the cook and chambermaid to breakfast. A moment or two -later she returned to the window, but the boys were gone; so was a -large stone jar, which was one of those family heirlooms which are -abhorred by men but loved as dearly by women as ancestral robes or -jewels. Mrs. Burton had that mania for making preserves which posterity -has inflicted upon even some of the brightest and best members of the -race, and the jar referred to had been carefully scalded that morning -and set in the sun, preparatory to being filled with raspberry jam. - -“Harry,” said Mrs. Burton, “won’t you step out and get that jar for me? -It must be dry by this time.” - -Mr. Burton consulted his watch, and replied: - -“I’ve barely time to catch the fast train to town, my dear, but the -boys won’t fail to get back by dinner-time. Then you may be able to -ascertain the jar’s whereabouts.” - -Mr. Burton hurried from the front door, and his wife made no less haste -in the opposite direction. The boys were invisible, and a careful -glance at the adjacent country showed no traces of them. Mrs. Burton -called the cook and chambermaid, and the three women took, each one, a -roadway through the lightly wooded ground near the house. Mrs. Burton -soon recognized familiar voices, and following them to their source, -she emerged from the wood near the rear of the boys’s own home. Going -closer, she traced the voices to the Lawrence barn, and she appeared -before the door of that structure to see her beloved jar in the -middle of the floor, and full of green tomatoes, over which the boys -were pouring the contents of bottles labeled “Mustang Liniment” and -“Superior Carriage Varnish.” The boys became conscious of the presence -of their aunt, and Toddie, with a smile in which confidence blended -with the assurance of success attained, said: - -“We’s makin’ pickles for you, ’cause you told us a nysh little story. -This is just the way mamma makes ’em, only we couldn’t make the stuff -in the bottles hot.” - -Mrs. Burton’s readiness of expression seemed to fail her, and as she -abruptly quitted the spot, with a hand of each nephew in her own, Budge -indicated the nature of her feelings by exclaiming: - -“Ow! Aunt Alice! don’t squeeze my hand so hard!” - -“Boys,” said Mrs. Burton, “why did you take my jar without permission?” - -“What did you say?” asked Budge. “Do you mean what did we take it for?” - -“Certainly.” - -“Why, we wanted to give you a s’prise.” - -“You certainly succeeded,” said Mrs. Burton, without a moment’s -hesitation. - -“You must give us s’prises, too,” said Toddie. “S’prises is lovaly; -papa gives us lots of ’em. Sometimes they’s candy, but they’s nicest -when they’s buttonanoes” (bananas). - -“How would you like to be shut up in a dark room all morning, to think -about the naughty thing you’ve done?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“Huh!” replied Budge. “That wouldn’t be no s’prise at all. We can do -that any time that we do anything bad, and papa and mamma finds out. -Why, you forgot to bring your pickles home! I don’t think you act very -nice about presents and s’prises.” - -[Illustration: “WE’S MAKIN’s PICKLES FOR YOU”] - -Mrs. Burton did not explain nor did she spend much time in -conversation. When she reached her own door, however, she turned and -said: - -“Now, boys, you may play anywhere in the yard that you like, but you -must not go away or come into the house until I call you, at twelve -o’clock. I shall be very busy this morning, and must not be disturbed. -You will try to be good boys, won’t you?” - -“I will,” exclaimed Toddie, turning up an honest little face for a -kiss, and dragging his aunt down until he could put his arms about her -and give her an affectionate hug. Budge seemed lost in meditation, but -the sound of the closing of the door brought him back to earth; he -threw the door open, and exclaimed: - -“Aunt Alice!” - -“What?” - -“Come here--I want to ask you something.” - -“It’s your business to come to me, Budge, if you have a favor to ask,” -said Mrs. Burton, from the parlor. - -“Oh! Well, what I want to know is, how did the Lord make the first -hornet--the very first one that ever was?” - -“Just the way he made everything else,” replied Mrs. Burton. “Just by -wanting it done.” - -“Then did Noah save hornets in the ark?” continued Budge. “’Cause I -don’t see how he kept ’em from stingin’ his boys and girls, and then -gettin’ killed ’emselves.” - -“You ask me about it after lunch, Budge,” said Mrs. Burton, “and I -will tell you all I can. Now run and play.” - -The door closed again, and Mrs. Burton, somewhat confused, but still -resolute, seated herself at the piano for practice. She had been -playing perhaps ten minutes, when a long-drawn sigh from some one -not herself caused her to turn hastily and behold the boy Budge. A -stern reproof was ready, but somehow it never reached the young man. -Mrs. Burton afterward explained her silence by saying that Budge’s -countenance was so utterly doleful that she was sure his active -conscience had realized the impropriety of his affair with the jar, and -he had come to confess. - -“Aunt Alice,” said Budge, “do you know I don’t think much of your -garden? There ain’t a turtle to be found in it from one end to the -other, and no nice grassy place to slide down like there is at our -house.” - -“Can’t you understand, little boy,” replied Mrs. Burton, “that we -arranged the house and grounds to suit ourselves, and not little boys -who come to see us?” - -“Well, I don’t think that was a very nice thing to do,” said Budge. “My -papa says we ought to care as much about pleasing other folks as we do -for ourselves. I didn’t want to make you that jar of pickles, but Tod -said ’twould be nice for you, so I went and did it, instead of askin’ -a man that drove past to give me a ride. That’s the way you ought to do -about gardens.” - -“Suppose you run out now,” said Mrs. Burton, “I told you not to come in -until I called you.” - -“But you see I came in for my top--I laid it down in the dining-room -when I came in, and now it ain’t there at all. I’d like to know what -you’ve done with it, and why folks can’t let little boys’s things -alone.” - -“Budge,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, turning suddenly on the piano-stool, “I -think there’ a very cross little boy around here somewhere. Suppose I -were to lose something?” - -“’Twas a three-cent top,” said Budge. “’Twasn’t only a something.” - -“Suppose, then, that I were to lose a top,” said Mrs. Burton, “what do -you suppose I would do if I wanted it very much?” - -“You’d call the servant to find it--that’ what I want you to do now,” -said Budge. - -“I shouldn’t do anything of the kind. Try to think, now, of what a -sensible person ought to do in such a case.” - -Budge dejectedly traced with his toe one of the figures in the carpet, -and seemed buried in thought; suddenly, however, his face brightened, -and he looked up shyly and said, with an infinite scale of inflection:-- - -“I know.” - -“I thought you would find out,” said Mrs. Burton, with an encouraging -kiss and embrace, which Budge terminated quite abruptly. - -“One victory to report to my superior officer, the dear old humbug,” -murmured Mrs. Burton, as she turned again to the keyboard. But before -the lady could again put herself _en rapport_ with the composer Budge -came flying into the room with a radiant face, and the missing top. - -“I told you I knew what you’d do,” said he, “an’ I just went and done -it. I prayed about it. I went up-stairs into a chamber and shut the -door, and knelt down an’ said, ‘Dear Lord, bless everybody, an’ don’t -let me be bad, an’ help me to find that top again, an’ don’t let me -have to pray for it as long as I had to pray for that baby.’s And then -when I came down-stairs there was that top on the register, just where -I left it. Say, Aunt Alice, I think brekbux was an awful long while -ago. Don’t you have cakes and oranges to give to little boys?” - -“Children should never eat between meals,” Mrs. Burton replied. “It -spoils their digestion and makes them cross.” - -“Then I guess my digestion’s spoilt already,” said Budge, “for I’m -awful cross sometimes, an’ you can’t spoil a bad egg;--that’ what -Mike says. So I guess I’d better have some cake; I like the kind with -raisins an’ citron best.” - -“Only this once,” murmured Mrs. Burton to herself, as she led the way -to the dining-room closet, partly for the purpose of hiding her own -face. “And I won’t tell Harry about it,” she continued, with greater -energy. “Here’s a little piece for Toddie, too,” said Mrs. Burton, “and -I want you both to remember that I don’t want you to come indoors until -you’re called.” - -Budge disappeared, and his aunt had an hour so peaceful that she began -to react against it and started to call her nephews into the house. -Budge came in hot haste in answer to her call, and volunteered the -information that the Burton chicken-coop was much nicer than the one at -his own house, for the latter was without means of ingress for small -boys. Toddy, however, came with evident reluctance, and stopped _en -route_ to sit on the grass and gyrate thereon in a very constrained -manner. - -“What’s the matter, Toddie?” asked Mrs. Burton, who speedily discerned -that the young man was ill at ease. - -[Illustration: “I GOT INTO A HEN’S NESHT WHERE THERE WAS SOME EGGS”] - -“Why,” said Toddie, “I got into a hen’ nesht where there was some eggs, -an’ made believe I was a henny-penny that was goin’ to hatch little -tsickens, an’ some of ’em was goin’ to be brown, an’ some white an’ -some black, an’ dey was all goin’ to be such dear little fuzzy balls, -an’ dey was goin’ to sleep in the bed wif me every night, an’ I was -goin’ to give one of de white ones to dat dear little baby sister, -an’ one of ’em to you, ’cause you was sweet, too, an’ dey was all -goin’ to have tsickens of deir own some day, an’ I sitted down in de -nesht ever so soffaly ’cause I hasn’t got fevvers, you know, an’ when -I got up dere wasn’t nuffin dere but a nasty muss. An’ I don’t feel -comfitable.” - -Mrs. Burton grasped the situation at once, and shouted: “Toddie, sit -down on the grass. Budge, run home and ask Maggie for a clean suit for -Toddie. Jane, fill the bathtub.” - -“Don’t want to sit on the gwass,” whined Toddie. “I feels bad, an’ I -wantsh to be loved.” - -“Aunty loves you very much, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, tenderly. -“Doesn’t that make you happy?” - -“No,” exclaimed the youth with great emphasis. “Dat kind of lovin’ -don’t do no good to little boys with eggy dresses. Wantsh you to come -out an’ sit down by me an’ love me.” - -Toddie’s eyes said more than his lips, so Mrs. Burton hurried out to -him, prudently throwing a light shawl about her waist. Toddie greeted -her with an effusiveness which was touching in more senses than one, -as Mrs. Burton’s morning robe testified by the time Budge returned. -Carefully enveloped in a hearth-rug, Toddie was then conveyed to the -bathroom, and when he emerged he was so satisfied with the treatment he -had received that he remarked: - -“Aunt Alice, will you give me a forough baff every day, if I try to -hatch out little tsickens for you?” - -The events of the morning resulted in luncheon being an hour late, -so Mrs. Burton was compelled to make considerable haste in preparing -herself for a round of calls. She was too self-possessed, however, to -forget the possible risks to which her home would be subjected during -her absence, so she called her nephews to her and proceeded to instruct -them in the duties and privileges of the afternoon. - -“Darlings,” she said, putting an arm around each boy, “Aunt Alice must -be away this afternoon for an hour or two. I wonder who will take care -of the house for her?” - -“I want to go wif you,” said Toddie, with a kiss. - -“I can’t take you, dear,” said the lady, after returning Toddie’s -salute. “The walk will be too long; but auntie will come back to her -dear little Toddie as soon as she can.” - -“Oh, you’re goin’ to walk to where you’ goin’, are you?” said Toddie, -wriggling from his aunt’s arm. “Den I wouldn’t go wif you for noffin’ -in the wyld.” - -The pressure of Mrs. Burton’s arm relaxed, but she did not forget her -duty. - -“Listen, boys,” said she. “Don’t you like to see houses neatly and -properly arranged, like your mamma’s and mine?” - -“I do!” said Budge. “I always think heaven must be that way, with -parlors an’ pictures an’ books an’ a piano. Only they don’t ever have -to sweep in heaven, do they, ’cause there ain’t no dirt there. But I -wonder what the Lord does to make the little angels happy when they -want to make dirt-pies, and can’t?” - -“Aunt Alice will have to explain that to you when she comes back, -Budge. But little angels never want to make mud-pies.” - -“Why, papa says people’s spirits don’t change when they die,” said -Budge. “So how can little boy angels help it?” - -Mrs. Burton silently vowed that at a more convenient season she would -deliver a course of systematic theology which should correct her -brother-in-law’s loose teachings. At present, however, the sun was -hurrying toward Asia, and she had made but little progress in securing -insurance against accident to household goods. - -“You both like nicely arranged rooms,” pursued Mrs. Burton, but Toddie -demurred. - -“I don’t like ’em,” said he. “They’re the kind of places where folks -always says ‘Don’t!’s to little boysh that wantsh to have nysh times.” - -“But, Toddie,” reasoned Mrs. Burton, “the way to have nice times is to -learn to enjoy what is nicest. People have been studying how to make -homes pretty ever since the world began.” - -“Adam an’ Eve didn’t,” said Toddie. “Lord done it for ’em; an’ he let -’em do just what dey wanted to. I bet little Cain an’ Abel had more fun -than any uvver little boys dat ever was.” - -“Oh, no, they didn’t,” said Mrs. Burton, “because they never were in -that lovely garden. Their parents had to think and plan a long time to -make their home beautiful. Just think, now, how many people have had -to plan and contrive before the world got to be as pleasant a place as -it is now! When you look at your mamma’ parlor and mine, you see what -thousands and millions of people have had to work to bring about.” - -“Gwacious!” exclaimed Toddie, his eyes opening wider and wider. “Dat’s -wonnerful!” - -“Yes, and every nice person alive is doing the same now,” continued -Mrs. Burton, greatly encouraged by the impression she had made, “and -little boys should try to do the same. Every one should, instead of -disturbing what is beautiful, try to enjoy it, and want to make it -better instead of worse. Even little boys should feel that way.” - -“I’e goin’ to ’member that,” said Toddie, with a far-away look. “I -fink it awful nysh for little boys to fink the same finks dat big folks -do.” - -“Dear little boy,” said Mrs. Burton, arising. “Then you won’t let -anybody disturb anything in Aunt Alice’s house, will you? You’ll take -care of everything for her just as if you were a big man, won’t you?” - -“Yesh, indeedy,” said Toddie. - -“An’ me, too,” said Budge. - -“You’re two manly little fellows, and I shall have to bring you -something real nice,” said Mrs. Burton, kissing her nephews -good-by. “There!” she whispered to herself, as she passed out of the -garden-gate, “I wonder what my lord and master will say of that victory -over imperfect natures, of the sense of the fitness of things? He would -have left the boys under the care of the servants; I am proud of having -been able to leave them to themselves.” - -On her return, two hours later, Mrs. Burton was met at her front door -by two very dirty little boys, with faces full of importance and -expectancy. - -“We done just what you told us, Aunt Alice,” said Toddie. “We didn’t -touch a thing, an’ we thought of everything we could do to make the -world prettier. D’just come see.” - -With a quickened step Mrs. Burton followed her nephews into the back -parlor. Furniture, pictures, books, and bric-a-brac were exactly as she -left them, but some improvements had been designed and partly executed. -A bit of wall several feet long, and bare from floor to ceiling, except -for a single picture, had long troubled Mrs. Burton’s artistic eye, and -she now found that tasteful minds, like great ones, think alike. - -“I think no room is perfect without flowers,” said Budge; “so does papa -an’ mamma, so we thought we’d s’prise you with some.” - -On the floor, in a heap which was not without tasteful arrangement, -was almost a cartload of stones disposed as a rockery, and on the top -thereof, and working through the crevices, was a large quantity of -street dust. From several of the crevices protruded ferns, somewhat -wilted, and bearing evidence of having been several times disarranged -and dropped upon the dry soil which partly covered their roots. Around -the base was twined several yards of Virginia creeper while from the -top sprang a well-branched specimen of the “Datura stramonium” (the -common “stink-weed”). The three conservators of the beautiful gazed in -silence for a moment, and then Toddie looked up with angelic expression -and said: - -“Isn’t it lovaly?” - -[Illustration: “ISN’T IT LOVALY?”] - -“I hope what you brought us is real nice,” remarked Budge, “for ’twas -awful hard work to make that rockery. I guess I never was so tired in -all my life. Mamma’s is on a big box, but we couldn’t find any boxes -anywhere, an’ we couldn’t find the servants to ask ’em. That ain’t -the kind of datura that has flowers just like pretty vases, but -papa says it’s more healthy than the tame kind. The ferns look kind -o’s thirsty, but I couldn’t see how to water ’em without wettin’ the -carpet, so I thought I’d wait till you came home, and ask you about it.” - -There was a sudden rustle of silken robes and two little boys found -themselves alone. When, half an hour later, Mr. Burton returned from -the city, he found his wife more reticent than he had ever known her -to be, while two workmen with market baskets were sifting dust upon -his hall-carpets and making a stone-heap in the gutter in front of the -house. - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -On the morning of the second day of Mrs. Burton’s experiment, the -aunt of Budge and Toddie awoke with more than her usual sense of the -responsibility and burden of life. Her husband’s description of a -charming lot of bric-à-brac and pottery soon to be sold at auction did -not stimulate as much inquiry as such announcements usually did, and -Mrs. Burton’s cook did not have her usual early morning visit from her -watchful mistress. Mrs. Burton was wondering which of her many duties -to her nephews should be first attended to; but, as she wondered long -without reaching any conclusion an ever-sympathizing Providence came -to her assistance, for the children awoke and created such a hubbub -directly over her head that she speedily determined that reproof was -the first thing in order. Dressing hastily, she went up to the chamber -of the innocents, and learned that the noise was occasioned by a heavy -antique center-table, which was flying back and forth across the room, -the motive power consisting of two pairs of sturdy little arms. - -“Hullo, Aunt Alice!” said Budge. “I awful glad you came in. The -table’s a choo-choo, you know, an’ my corner’s New York an’ Tod’s is -Hillcrest, an’ he’s ticket-agent at one place an’ I at the other. But -the choo-choo hasn’t got any engineer, an’ we have to push it, an’ it -isn’t fair for ticket-agents to do so much work besides their own. Now -you can be engineer. Jump on!” - -The extempore locomotive was accommodatingly pushed up to Mrs. Burton -with such force as to disturb her equilibrium, but she managed to say: - -“Do you do this way with your mamma’ guest-chamber furniture?” - -“No,” said Toddie, “’cause why, ’pare-chamber’h always lockted. B’ides -dat, papa once tookted all de wheels off our tables--said tables wash -too restless.” - -“Little boys,” said Mrs. Burton, returning the table to its place, -“should never use things which belong to other people without asking -permission. Nor should they ever use anything, no matter who it belongs -to, in any way but that in which it was made to be used. Did either of -you ever see a table on a railroad?” - -“’Coursh we did,” said Toddie, promptly; “dere’s a tyne-table at -Hillcrest, an’annuvver at Dzersey City. How could choo-choos turn -around if dere wasn’t?” - -“It’s time to dress for breakfast now,” said Mrs. Burton in some -confusion, as she departed. - -The children appeared promptly at the table on the ringing of the bell -and brought ravenous appetites with them. Mrs. Burton composed a solemn -face, rapped on the table with the handle of the carving-knife, and all -heads were bowed while the host and hostess silently returned thanks. -When the adults raised their heads they saw that two juvenile faces -were still closely hidden in two pairs of small hands. Mrs. Burton -reverently nodded at each one to attract her husband’ attention, and -mentally determined that souls so absorbed in thanksgiving were good -ground for better spiritual seed than their parents had ever scattered. -Slowly, however, twice ten little fingers separated, and very large -eyes peeped inquiringly between them; then Budge suddenly dropped his -hands, straightened himself in his chair, and said: - -“Why, Uncle Harry! Have you been forgettin’ again how to ask a -blessin’?” - -And Toddie, looking somewhat complainingly at his uncle, and very -hungrily at the steak, remarked: - -“Said my blessin’ ’bout fifty timesh.” - -“Once would have been sufficient, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Why didn’t you say yoursh once, den?” asked Toddie. - -“I did. We don’t need to talk aloud to have the Lord hear us,” -explained Mrs. Burton. - -“’Posin’ you don’t,” said Toddie, “I don’t fink it’s a very nysh way -to do, to whisper fings to de Lord. When I whisper anyfing mamma says, -‘Toddie, what’s you whisperin’ for? You ’shamed of somefing?’s Guesh -you an’ Uncle Harry’s bofe ’shamed at de same time.” - -Mr. Burton desired to give his wife a pertinent hint yet dared not -while two such vigilant pairs of ears were present. A happy thought -struck him and he said in very bad German: - -“Is it not time for the reformation to begin?” - -And Mrs. Burton answered:-- - -“It soon will be.” - -“That’s awful funny talk,” said Budge. “I wish I could talk that way. -That’s just the way ragged, dirty men talk to my papa sometimes, and -then he gives ’em lots of pennies. When was you an’ Aunt Alice ragged -an’ dirty, so as to learn to talk that way?” - -“Budge, Budge!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Thousands of very rich and -handsome people talk that way--all German people do.” - -“Do they talk to the Lord so?” asked Budge. - -“Certainly,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Gracious!” exclaimed the young man. “He must be awful smart to -understand them.” - -Mr. Burton repeated his question in German, but Mrs. Burton kept silent -and looked extremely serious, with a ghost of a frown. - -“What are you boys and your auntie going to do with yourselves to-day?” -asked Mr. Burton, anxious to clear away the cloud of reticence which, -since the night before, had been marring his matrimonial sky. - -“I guess,” said Budge, looking out through the window, “it’s going to -rain; so the best thing will be for Aunt Alice to tell us stories all -day long. We never do get enough stories.” - -“Just the thing!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, her face coming from behind -the clouds, and with more than its usual radiance. - -“Hazh you got plenty of stories in your ’tomach?” asked Toddie, poising -his fork in air, regardless of the gravy which trickled down upon his -hand from the fragment of meat at the end. - -[Illustration: “RAGGED, DIRTY MEN TALK TO MY PAPA SOMETIMES”] - -“Dozens of them,” said Mrs. Burton. “I listened to stories in -Sunday-school for about ten years, and I’ve never had anybody to tell -them to.” - -“I don’t think much of Sunday-school stories,” said Budge, with the -air of a man indulging in an unsatisfactory retrospect. “There’s -always somethin’ at the end of ’em that spoils all the good taste of -’em--somethin’ about bein’ good little boys.” - -“Aunt Alice’s stories haven’t any such endings,” said Mr. Burton, with -a sneaking desire to commit his wife to a policy of simple amusement. -“She knows that little boys want to be good, and she wants to see them -happy, too.” - -“Aunt Alice will tell you only what you will enjoy, Budge--she promises -you that,” said Mrs. Burton. “We will send Uncle Harry away right after -breakfast and then you shall have all the stories you want.” - -“And cake, too?” asked Toddie. “Mamma always gives us cakesh when she’s -tellin’ us stories, so we’ll sit still an’ not wriggle about.” - -“No cakes,” said Mrs. Burton, kindly but firmly. “Eating between meals -spoils the digestion of little boys, and makes them very cross.” - -“I guess that’s what was the matter with Terry yesterday, then,” -said Budge. “He was eatin’ a bone between meals, out in the garden -yesterday afternoon, and when I took hold of his back legs and tried to -play that he was a wheelbarrow, he bit me.” - -Mr. Burton gave the dog Terry a sympathetic pat and a bit of meat, -making him stand on his hind legs and beg for the latter, to the great -diversion of the children. Then, with an affectionate kiss and a look -of tender solicitude he wished his wife a happy day and hurried off to -the city. Mrs. Burton took the children into the library and picked up -a Bible. - -“What sort of story would you like first?” she asked, as she slowly -turned the leaves. - -“One ’bout Abraham, ’cause he ’most killed somebody,” said Toddie, -eagerly. - -“Oh, no,” said Budge; “one about Jesus, because He was always good to -everybody.” - -“Dear child,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Goodness always makes people -nice, doesn’t it?” - -“Yes,” said Budge; “’cept when they talk about it to little boys. Say, -Aunt Alice, what makes good folks always die?” - -“Because the Lord needs them, I suppose, Budge.” - -“Then don’t he need me?” asked Budge, with a pathetic look of inquiry. - -“Certainly, dear,” said Mrs. Burton; “but he wants you to make other -people happy first. A great many good people are left in the world for -the same reason.” - -“Then why couldn’t Jesus be left?” said Budge. “He could make people -happier than every one else put together.” - -“You’ll understand why, when you grow older,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“I wish I’d hurry up about it and grow, then,” said Budge. “Why can’t -little boys grow just like little flowers do?--just be put in the -ground an’ watered and hoed? Our ’paragus grows half-a-foot in a day -almost.” - -“You’s a dyty boy to want to be put in de dyte, Budgie,” said Toddie, -“an’ I isn’t goin’ to play wif you any more. Mamma says I mustn’t -play wif dyty little boys.” - -“Dirty boy yourself!” retorted Budge. “You like to play in the dirt, -only you cry whenever anybody comes with water to put on you. Say, Aunt -Alice, how long does people have to stay in the ground when they die -before they go to heaven?” - -“Three days, I suppose, Budge,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“An’ does everybody that the Lord loves go up to heaven?” - -“Yes, dear.” - -“Well, papa says some folks believe that dead people never go to -heaven.” - -“Never mind what they believe, Budge. You should believe what you are -taught,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“But I’d like to know for sure.” - -“So you will, some day.” - -“I wish ’twould be pretty quick about it, then,” said Budge. “Now tell -us a story.” - -Mrs. Burton drew the children nearer her as she reopened the Bible, -when she discovered, to her surprise, that Toddie was crying. - -“I hazhn’t talked a bit for ever so long!” he exclaimed, in a high, -pathetic tremolo. - -“What do you want to say, Toddie?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“I know all ’bout burying folks--that’ what,” said Toddie. “Mamma -tolded me all ’bout it one time, she did. An’ yeshterday me and Budgie -had a funelal all by ourselves. We found a dear little dead byde. An’ -we w’apped it up in a piesh of paper, ’cause a baking-powder box wazn’t -bid enough for a coffin, an’ we dugged a little grave, an’ we knelted -down an’ said a little prayer, an’ ashked de Lord to take it up to -hebben, an’ den we put dyte in the grave an’ planted little flowers -all over it. Dat’s what.” - -“Yes, an’ we put a little stone at the head of the grave, too, just -like big dead folks,” said Budge. “We couldn’t find one with any -writin’ on it, but I went home and got a picture-book an’ cut out a -little picture of a bird, an’ stuck it on the stone with some tar that -I picked out of the groceryman’ wagon-wheel, so that when the angel -that takes spirits to heaven comes along, it can see there’s a dead -little birdie there waitin’ for him.” - -“Yesh,” added Toddie, “an’ little bydie ishn’t like us. ’Twon’t have -to wunner how it’ll feel to hazh wings when it gets to be a angel, -’cause ’twas all used to wings ’fore it died.” - -“Birds don’t go----” began Mrs. Burton, intending to correct the -children’s views as to the future state of the animal kingdom, when -there flashed through her mind some of the wonderings of her own -girlish days, and the inability of her riper experience to answer them, -so she again postponed, and with a renewed sense of its vastness, the -duty of reforming the opinions of her nephews on things celestial. At -about the same time her cook sought an interview, and complained of -the absence of two of the silver tablespoons. Mrs. Burton went into -the mingled despondency, suspicion and anger which is the frequent -condition of all American women who are unfortunate enough to have -servants. - -[Illustration: “YES, AN’ WE PUT A LITTLE STONE AT THE HEAD OF THE -GRAVE”] - -“Where is the chambermaid?” she asked. - -“An’ ye’s needn’t be a-suspectin’ av her,” said the cook. “It’s them -av yer own family that I’m thinkin’ hez tuk ’em.” And the cook glared -suggestively upon the boys. Mrs. Burton accepted the hint. - -“Boys, have either of you taken any of auntie’s spoons for anything?” - -“No,” answered Toddie, promptly; and Budge looked very saintly and shy, -as if he knew something that, through delicacy of feeling and not fear, -he shrank from telling. - -“What is it, Budge?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“Why, you see,” said Budge, in the sweetest of tones, “we wanted -somethin’ yesterday to dig the grave of the birdie with, an’ we -couldn’t think of anything else so nice as spoons. There was plenty of -ugly old iron ones lyin’ around, but birdies are so sweet an’ nice -that I wouldn’t have none of ’em. An’ the dinner-dishes was all lyin’ -there with the big silver spoons on top of ’em, so I just got two of -’em--they wasn’t washed yet, but we washed ’em real clean so’s to be -real nice about everythin’, so that if the little birdie’ spirit was -lookin’ at us it wouldn’t be disgusted.” - -“And where are the spoons now?” demanded Mrs. Burton, oblivious to all -the witchery of the child’s spirit and appearance. - -“I dunno,” said Budge, becoming an ordinary boy in an instant. - -“I doeszh,” said Toddie--“I put ’em somewherezh, so when we wanted to -play housh nexsht time we wouldn’t have to make b’lieve little sticks -was spoons.” - -“Show me immediately where they are,” commanded Mrs. Burton, rising -from her chair. - -“Den will you lend ’em to us nexsht time we playzh housh?” asked Toddie. - -“No,” said Mrs. Burton, with cruel emphasis. - -Toddie pouted, rubbed his knuckles into his eyes, and led the way -to the rear of the garden where, in a hollow at the base of an old -apple-tree, were the missing spoons. Wondering whether other valuable -property might not be there, Mrs. Burton cautiously and with a stick -examined the remaining contents of the hole, and soon discovered one of -her damask napkins. - -“Datsh goin’ to be our table-cloff,” explained Toddie, “an’ -dat”--this, as an unopened pot of French mustard was unearthed “is -pizzyves” (preserves). - -Mrs. Burton placed her property in the pocket of her apron, led her two -nephews into the house, seated them with violence upon a sofa, closed -the doors noisily, drew a chair close to the prisoners, and said: - -“Now, boys, you are to be punished for taking auntie’s things out of -the house without permission.” - -“Don’t want to be shpynkted!” screamed Toddie, in a tone which -seemed an attempt at a musical duet by a saw-filer and an ungreased -wagon-wheel. - -“You’re not to be whipped,” continued Mrs. Burton, “but you must learn -not to touch things without permission. I think that to go without your -dinners would help you to remember that what you have done is naughty.” - -“Izhe ’most ’tarved to deff,” exclaimed Toddie, bursting out crying. -(N.B. Breakfast has been finished but a scant hour.) - -“Then I will put you into an empty room, and keep you there until you -are sure you can remember.” - -Toddie shrieked as if enduring the thousand tortures of the Chinese -executioner, and Budge looked as unhappy as if he were a young man in -love and in the throes of reluctant poesy, but Mrs. Burton led them -both to the attic, and into an empty room, placed chairs in two corners -and a boy in each chair, and said: - -“Don’t either of you move out of a chair. Just sit still and think how -naughty you’ve been. In an hour or two I’ll come back, and see if you -think you can be good boys here-after.” - -[Illustration: “DON’T EITHER OF YOU MOVE OUT OF A CHAIR”.] - -As Mrs. Burton left the room, she was followed by a shriek that seemed -to pierce the walls and be heard over half the earth. Turning hastily, -she saw that Toddie, from whom it had proceeded, had neither fallen out -of his chair, nor been seized by an epileptic fit, nor stung by some -venomous insect; so she closed the door, locked it, softly placed a -chair against it, sat down softly and listened. There was silence after -the several minutes required by Toddie to weary of his crying, and -then Mrs. Burton heard the following conversation: - -“Tod?” - -“What?” - -“We ought to do something!” - -“Chop Aunt Alish into little shnipsh of bitsh--datsh what I fink would -be nysh.” - -“That would be dreadful naughty,” said Budge, “after we’ve bothered her -so! We ought to do something good, just like big folks when they’ve -been bad.” - -“What doezh big folks do?” - -“Well, they read the Bible an’ go to church. But you an’ me can’t go -to church, ’cause ’tain’t Sunday, an’ we ain’t got no Bible, an’ we -wouldn’t know how to read it if we had.” - -“Den don’t letsh do noffin’ but be awful mad,” said the unrepentant -Toddie. “I’ll tell you what we can do. Let’s do like dat Maggydalen dat -mamma’s got a picture of, and dat was bad an’ got sorry; letsh look -awful doleful and cwosh. See me.” - -Toddie apparently gave an illustration of what he thought the proper -penitential countenance and attitude, for Budge exclaimed: - -“I don’t think that would look nice at all. It makes you look like a -dead puppy-dog with his head turned to one side. I’ll tell you what; -we can’t read Bibles like big folks, but we can tell stories out of the -Bible, an’ that’ bein’ just as good as if we read ’em.” - -“Oh, yes,” said Toddie, repenting at once. “Letsh! I wantsh to be good -just awful.” - -“Well, what shall we tell about?” asked Budge. - -“’Bout when Jesus was a little boy,” said Toddie, “for he was awful -good.” - -“No,” said Budge; “we’ve been naughty, an’ we must tell about somebody -that was awful naughty. I think old Pharaoh’s about the thing.” - -“Aw right,” said Toddie. “Tell us ’bout him.” - -“Well, once there was a bad old king down in Egypt, that had all the -Izzyrelites there an’ made ’em work, an’ when they didn’t work he -had ’em banged. But that dear little bit of a Moses, that lived in a -basket in the river, grew up to be a man, an’ he just killed one of -Pharaoh’s bad bangers, an’ then he skooted an’ hid. An’ the Lord saw -that he was the kind of man that was good for somethin’, so he told him -he wanted him to make Pharaoh let the poor Izzyrelites go where they -wanted to. So Moses went and told Pharaoh. An’ Pharaoh said, ’No, you -don’t!’s Then Moses went an’ told the Lord, an’ the Lord got angry, -and turned all the water in the river into blood.” - -“My!” said Toddie. “Then if anybody wanted to look all bluggy, all he -had to do was to go in bavin’, wasn’t it?” - -“But he wouldn’t let ’em go then,” continued Budge. “So the Lord made -frogs hop out of all the rivers an’ mud-puddles everywhere, and they -went into all the houses an’ folks couldn’t keep ’em out.” - -“I just wis mamma an’ me’d been in Egypt, den,” said Toddie. “Den she -couldn’t make me leave my hop-toads out of doors, if de Lord wanted ’em -to stay in de house. I loves hop-toads. I fwallowed one de uvver day, -an’ it went way down my ’tomach.” - -“Didn’t it kick inside of you?” asked Budge, with natural interest. - -“No-o!” said Toddie. “I bited him in two fyst. But he growed togvver -ag’in, an’dzust hopped right out froo de top of my head.” - -“Let’s see the hole he came out of?” said Budge, starting across the -floor. - -“It all growded up again right away,” said Toddie, in haste, “an’ -you’s a bad boy to get out of your chair when Aunt Alice told you not -to, and you’s got to tell annuvver story ’bout naughty folks to pay for -it. Gwon!” - -Budge returned to his chair, and continued: - -“An’ old Pharaoh went down to Moses’s house an’ said, ‘Ask the Lord -to make the frogs hop away, an’ you can have your old Izzyrelites--I -don’t want ’em.’ So the Lord done it, an’ all the glad old Pharaoh -was, was only ’cause he got rid of ’em; an’ he kept the Izzyrelites -some more. Then the Lord thought he’d fix ’em sure, so he turned all -the dirt into nasty bugs.” - -“What did little boys do den, dat wanted dyte to make mud-pies of?” -asked Toddie. - -“Well, the bugs was only made out of dry dirt,” exclaimed Budge; “just -dust like we kick up in the street, you know.” - -“Oh,” said Toddie. “I wonder if any of dem bugs was ’tato-bugs?” - -“I dunno, but some of ’em was the kind that mammas catch with fine -combs after their little boys have been playin’ with dirty children. -An’ Pharaoh’s smart men, that thought they could do everythin’, found -they couldn’t make them bugs.” - -“Why-y-y,” drawled Toddie, “did Pharaoh want some more of ’em?” - -“No, I s’pose not, but he stayed bad, so he had to catch it again. -The Lord sent whole swarms of flies to Egypt, an’ there wasn’t any -mosquito-nets in that country either. An’ then Pharaoh got good again, -an’ the Lord took the flies away, an Pharaoh got bad again, so the -Lord made all the horses an’ cows awful sick, an’ they all died.” - -“Then couldn’t Pharaoh go out ridin’ at all?” - -“No. He had to walk, even if he wanted to get to the depot in an awful -hurry. An’ it made him so mad that he said the Izzyrelites shouldn’t -go anyhow. So Moses took a handful of ashes an’ threw it up in the air -before Pharaoh, an’ everybody in all Egypt got sore with boils right -away.” - -“Ow!” said Toddie, “I had some nashty boils oncesh, but I didn’t know -ashes made ’em. I’ll ’member that.” - -“An’ Pharaoh said ‘no!’again, so he got some more bothers. The Lord -made great big lumps of ice tumble down out of heaven, an’ he made -the thunder go bang, an’ the lightnin’ ran around the ground like -our fizzers did last Fourth of July, an’ it spoiled all the growing -things.” - -“Strawberries?” queried Toddie. - -“Yes.” - -“An’ dear little panzhies?” - -“Yes.” - -“Poo’s old Pharo’! Gwon.” - -[Illustration: “--BUT I DIDN’T KNOW ASHES MADE ’EM”] - -“Then Pharaoh’s friends began to tell him he was bein’ a goose, -thinkin’ he could be stronger than the Lord, an’ Pharaoh kind -o’ thought so himself. So he told Moses that the men-folks of the -Izzyrelites might go away if they wanted to, but nobody else.” - -“Mean old fing! Who did he fink was goin’ to cook fings--an’ go to -school?” - -“I dunno, but I guess he had a chance to think about it, for the Lord -made whole crowds of locusts come. Them’s grasshoppers, you know, an’ -they ate up everythin’ in all the gardens, an’ the folks got half -crazy about it.” - -“Den I guesh dey didn’t tell their little boysh that they mushn’t kill -gwasshoppers, like mamma doesh. Wish I’d been dere! What did he do den?” - -“Oh, he was a selfish old pig, just like he was before, so the Lord -said, ‘Moses, just hold your hand up to the sky a minute.’ An’ Moses -did it, and then it got darker in Egypt than it is in our coal-bin. -Folks couldn’t see anythin’ anywhere, an’ wherever they was when it -growed dark, they had to stay for three whole days an’ nights.” - -“Gwacious!” Toddie exclaimed. “Wouldn’t it be drefful if Moses was to -go an’ hold his hand up in the sky while we’s a-sittin’ in dezhe -chairzh? Mebbe he will! Let’s holler for Aunt Alish!” - -“Oh, he can’t do it now, ’cause he’s dead. Besides that, we ain’t -keepin’ any Izzyrelites from doin’ what they want to. Old Pharaoh -got awful frightened then, an’ told Moses he might take all the people -away, but they mustn’t take their things with ’em--the selfish old -fellow! But Moses knew how hard the poor Izzyrelites had to work for -the few things they had, so he said they wouldn’t go unless they could -carry everythin’ they owned. An’ that made Pharaoh mad, an’ he said, -‘Get out! If I catch you here again I’ll kill you!’s An’ Moses said, -‘Don’t trouble yourself; you won’t see me again unless you want me.’” - -“Shouldn’t fink he would,” said Toddie. “Nobody’s goin’ to vizhit -kings dzust to have deir heads cutted off. Even our shickens knows -enough not to come to Mike when he wants to cut deir heads off. Gwon!” - -“Well, then the Lord told Moses somethin’ that must have made him feel -awful. He told him that next night every biggest boy in every family -was goin’ to be killed by an angel. Ain’t I glad I didn’t live there -then! I’d like to see an angel, but not if that’s what he wants to do -with me. What would you do if an angel was to kill me, Tod?” - -“I’d have all your marbles,” Toddie answered, promptly, “and the -goat-cawwiage would be all mine. Gwon!” - -“Well, the Lord told Moses about it, an’ Moses told the folks; an’ -he told ’em all to kill a little lamb, an’ dip their fingers in the -blood, an’ make a cross on their door-posts, so when the angel came -along an’ saw it he wouldn’t kill the biggest boy in their houses. -An’ that night down came the angel, an’ everybody woke up an’ cried -awful--worse than you did when you fell down-stairs the other day, -because all the biggest died. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearin’ -papas an’ mammas cryin’.” - -“Did dey all have funerals den?” - -“Of course.” - -“Gwacious! Den the little ’Gyptian boys dat didn’t get killed could -look at deaders all day long! What did Pharo’s do ’bout it den?” - -“He sent right after Moses an’ his brother, in a hurry, an’ he -told ’em that he’d been a bad king--just as if they didn’t know that -already! An’ he told ’em to take all the Izzyrelites, an’ all their -things, an’ go right straight away--he was in such a hurry that he -didn’t even invite Moses to the funeral, though he had a dead biggest -boy himself. An’ all the Egyptian people came too, and begged the -Izzyrelites to hurry an’ go--they didn’t see what they was waitin’ -for. They was so glad to get rid of ’em that they lent ’em anything -they wanted.” - -“Pies an’ cakes?” - -“No!” said Budge, contemptuously. “You don’t s’pose folks that’s -goin’ off travelin’ for forty years is goin’ to think ’bout eatin’ -first thing, do you? They borrowed clothes, an’ money, an’ everything -else they could get, an’ left the Egyptians awful poor. An’ off they -started.” - -“Did they have a ’cursion train?” - -“No! All the excursion trains in the world couldn’t have held such lots -of people. They rode on camels and donkeys, but lots of ’em walked.” - -“I don’t think that was a bit of fun.” - -“You would have,” said Budge, “if you’d always had to work like -everything. Don’t you ’member how once when mamma made you work, an’ -carry away all the blocks you brought up on the piazza from the new -buildin’? You walked ’way off to the village to get rid of it.” - -“Ye--es,” drawled Toddie, “but I knew I’d be rided back when dey came -to look for me. Den what did they do?” - -“They started to travel to a nice country that the Lord had told Moses -about, an’ they got along till they came to a pretty big ocean where -there wasn’t any ferry-boats. I don’t see what Moses took ’em to -such a place as that for, unless the Lord wanted to show ’em that no -ferry-boats could get the best of Him, when all of a sudden they saw an -awful lot of dust bein’ kicked up behind ’em, an’ somebody said that -Pharaoh was a-comin’.” - -“Should fink he’d seen ’nough of ’em,” said Toddie. “Did he come down -to the boat to wave his hanafitch good-by at ’em?” - -“No, he knew there wasn’t any boats there, an’ so he came to take ’em -back again an’ make ’em work some more.” - -“Should fink he’d be afraid de Lord would kill him next.” - -“P’r’aps he did; but then, you see, he was awful lazy, an’ didn’t like -to work for himself; papa says there’s lots of folks that would rather -be killed than do any work.” - -“Den what d’s de lazy folks do? They can’t catch any Izzyrelites, can -they?” - -“No,” said Budge, “but they can do what the Izzyrelites done -themselves--they borrow other people’s money. Well, when the folks saw -that ’twas Pharaoh a-comin’, they began to grunt, an pitch into poor -Moses, an’ told him he ought to be ashamed of hisself to bring ’em -away off there to be killed, when they might have died in Egypt without -havin’ to walk so far. But Moses said: ‘Shut your mouth, will you? -The Lord’s doin’ this job.’ Then the Lord said: ‘Moses, lift up your -cane an’ point across the water with it!’s An’ the minute Moses done -that, the water of that ocean went way up on one side, and way up on -the other side--just like it does in the bathtub sometimes when we’re -splashin’, you know--and there was a path right through the bottom of -that ocean. An’ the people just skooted right along it!” - -[Illustration: “SPLASHIN’ IN THE BATHTUB”] - -“Did they put on their rubbers fyst? ’Cause if they didn’t there must -have been lots of little boys spanked when they got across for gettin’ -their shoes muddy.” - -“I don’t know about that,” said Budge, after a slight pause for -reflection. “I must ’member to ask papa about that. But when they all -got over they began to grumble some more, for along came Pharaoh’s army -right after ’em.” - -“I fink they was a lot of good-for-nothing cry-babies,” Toddie -exclaimed. - -“Huh!” grunted Budge. “I guess you’d have yowled if you’d have been -trudgin’ along through the mud ever so long, an’ then seen some -soldiers an’ chariots an’ spears an’ bows an’ arrows comin’ to kill -you. But the Lord knew just how to manage. He always did. Papa says He -always comes in when you think He can’t. He said to Moses, ‘Lift up -your cane an’ point it across the ocean again.’s An’ Moses done it, -an’ down came that big fence of water on both sides kerswosh! An’ it -drownded old Pharaoh an’ the whole good-for-nothin’ lot.” - -“Then did the Izzyrelites go to cryin’ some more?” - -“Not much! They all got together an’ had a big sing.” - -“I know what they sung,” said Toddie. “They all sung -‘TurnbackPharo’army-hallelujah.’” - -“No, they didn’t,” said Budge. “They sung that splendid thing mamma -sings sometimes, ‘Sound the--loud tim--brel o’er--Egypt’--Egypt’ -dark----’” - -Budge had with great difficulty repeated the line of the glorious old -anthem, then he broke down and burst out crying. - -“What’s you cryin’ about?” asked Toddie. “Is you playin’ you’s an -Izzyrelite?” - -“No,” said Budge; “but whenever I think about that song, somethin’ -comes up in my throat and makes me cry.” - -The door of the room flew open, there was a rustle and a hurried tread, -and Mrs. Burton, her face full of tears, snatched Budge to her breast, -and kissed him repeatedly, while Toddie remarked: - -“When fings come up in my froat I just fwallows ’em.” - -Mrs. Burton conducted her nephews to the parlor floor, and said: - -“Now, little boys, it’s nearly lunch time, and I am going to have you -nicely washed and dressed, so that if any one comes in you will look -like little gentlemen.” - -“Ain’t we to be punished any more for bein’ bad?” asked Budge. - -“No,” said Mrs. Burton, kindly; “I’m going to trust you to remember and -be good.” - -“That isn’t what bothers me,” said Budge; “I told a great, long Bible -story to Tod up-stairs, so’s to be like big folks when they get bad, as -much as I could. But Tod didn’t tell any; I don’t think he’s got his -punish.” - -“He may tell his to-night, after Uncle Harry gets home,” said Mrs. -Burton. - -“An’ sit in a chair in the corner of the up-stairs room?” asked Budge. - -“I hardly think that will be necessary this time,” answered the lady. - -“Then I don’t think you punish fair a bit,” said Budge, with an -aggrieved pout. - -“I’ll be dzust as sad as I can ’bout it, Budgie,” said Toddie, with a -brotherly kiss. - -The boys were led off by the chambermaid to be dressed and Mrs. -Burton seated herself and devoted herself to earnest thought. Time -was flying, her husband had been between dark and breakfast-time most -exasperatingly solicitous as to the success of his wife’s theories of -government, and not even her genius of self-defense had prevailed -against him. She felt that so far she had been steadily vanquished. Her -husband had told her in other days that it was always so with the best -generals in their first engagements, so she determined that if men had -snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, she should be able to do so -as well. Her desperation at the thought of a long lifetime of “I told -you so’” from her husband made her determine that no discomfort should -prevent the most earnest endeavor for success. - -The luncheon bell aroused her from what had become a reverie in the -valley of humiliation, and she found awaiting her at the table her -nephews--Budge in a jaunty sailor-suit and Toddie in a clean dress and -an immaculate white apron. An old experience caused her to promptly end -some researches of Toddie’, instituted to discover whether his aunt’ -dishes were really “turtle-pyates,” and an attempt by Budge to drop -oysters in the mouth of the dog Terry, as he had seen his uncle do with -bread-crusts in the morning, was forcibly brought to a close. Beyond -the efforts alluded to, the children did nothing worse than people in -good society often do at table. After luncheon, Mrs. Burton said: - -“Now, boys, this is Aunt Alice’s receptionday. I will probably -have several calls, and every one will want to know about that dear -little new baby, and you must be there to tell them. So you must keep -yourselves very neat and clean. I know you wouldn’t like to see any -dirty people in my parlor!” - -“Hatesh to shtay in parlors,” said Toddie. “Wantsh to go and get some -jacks” (“Jack-in-the-pulpit”--a swamp plant). - -“Not to-day,” said Mrs. Burton, kindly, but firmly. “No one with nice -white aprons ever goes for jacks. What would you think if you saw me in -a swampy, muddy place, with a nice white apron on, hunting for jacks!” - -“Why, I’d fink you could bring home more’n me, ’cause your apron would -hold the mosht,” Toddie replied. - -“I’ll tell you what,” said Budge, calling Toddie into a corner and -whispering earnestly to him. The purity of Budge’s expression of -countenance and the tender shyness with which he avoided her gaze when -he noticed that it was upon him, caused Mrs. Burton to instinctively -turn her head away, out of respect for what she believed to be a -childish secret of some very tender order. Glancing at the couple -again for only a second, she saw that Toddie, too, seemed rather -less matter-of-fact than usual. Finally both boys started out of the -doorway, Budge turning and remarking with inflections simply angelic: - -“Will be back pretty soon, Aunt Alice.” - -Mrs. Burton proceeded to dress; she idly touched her piano, until one -lady after another called, and occupied her time. Suddenly, while -trying to form a good impression on a very dignified lady of the -old school, both boys marched into the parlor from the dining-room. -Mrs. Burton motioned them violently away, for Budge’s trousers and -Toddie’ apron were as dirty as they well could be. Neither boy saw the -visitor, however, for she was hidden by one of the wings which held the -folding-doors, so both tramped up to their aunt, while Budge exclaimed: - -“Folks don’t go to heaven the second day, anyhow, for we just dug up -the bird to see, an’ he was there just the same.” - -“And dere wazh lots of little ants dere wiv him,” said Toddie. “Is dat -’cause dey want to got to hebben, too, an’ wantsh somebody wif wings -to help ’em up?” - -“Budge!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, in chilling tones; “how did all this -dirt come on your clothes?” - -“Why, you see,” said the boy, edging up confidentially to his aunt, -and resting his elbows on her knee as he looked up into her face, “I -couldn’t bear to put the dear little birdie in the ground again without -sayin’ another little prayer. And I forgot to brush my knees off.” - -“Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, “you couldn’t have knelt down with your -stomach and breast. How did you get your nice white apron so dirty?” - -Toddie looked at the apron and then at his aunt--looked at a picture -or two, and then at the piano--followed the cornice-line with his eye, -seemed suddenly to find what he was looking for, and replied: - -“Do you fink dat apron’s dyty? Well, I don’t. Tell you watsh de matter -wif it--I fink de white’s gropped off.” - -“Go into the kitchen!” Mrs. Burton commanded, and both boys departed -with heavy pouts where pretty lips should have been. Half an hour -later their uncle, who had come home early with the laudable desire of -meeting some of his wife’s acquaintances, found his nephew Toddy upon -the scaffolding of an unfinished residence half-way between his own -residence and the railway station. Remembering the story, dear to -all makers of school reading-books, of the boy whose sailor father saw -him perched upon the mainyard, Mr. Burton stood beneath the scaffolding -and shouted to Toddie: - -[Illustration: “JUMP!” SHOUTED MR. BURTON] - -“Jump!” - -“I can’t,” screamed Toddie. - -“Jump!” shouted Mr. Burton, with increased energy. - -“Tell you I can’t,” repeated Toddie. “Wezh playin’ Tower of Babel, -an’ hazh had our talks made different like de folks did den, an’ when -I tells Budge to bring buicksh, he only buingzh mortar, an’ when I -wantsh mortar he buings buicksh. An’ den we talksh like you an’ Aunt -Alice did yestuday at de table.” - -“Yes,” said Budge, appearing from the inside of the building with -an armful of blocks. “Just listen.” And the young man chattered for -a moment or two in a dialect never even dimly hinted at except by a -convention of monkeys. - -Mr. Burton cautiously climbed the ladder, brought down one boy at a -time, kissed them both and shook them soundly, after which the three -wended homeward, the boys having sawdust on every portion of their -clothes not already soiled by dirt, and most of Mrs. Burton’s callers -meeting the party _en route_. - -Mr. Burton found his wife brilliantly conversational, yet averse to -talking about her nephews. The exercise which they had been compelled -to take in their emulation of the architects of the incomplete building -on the plain of Shinar gave them excellent appetites and silenced -tongues; but after his capacity had been tested to the uttermost Budge -said: - -“It’s time for Tod to do his punishment now, Aunt Alice. Don’t you -know?” - -Mrs. Burton winked at her husband, and nodded approvingly to Budge. - -“Come, Tod,” said Budge, “you must tell your awful sad story now, an’ -feel bad.” - -“Guesh I’ll tell ’bout Peter Gray,” said Toddie; “thatsh awful sad.” - -“Who was Peter Gray?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“He’s a dzentleman dat a dyty little boy in the nexsht street to us -sings ’bout,” said Toddie, “only I don’t sing ’bout him--I only tellsh -it. It’s dzust as sad that-a-way.” - -“Go on,” said Budge. - -“Once was a man,” said Toddie, with great solemnity, “an’ his name was -Peter Gray. An’ he loved a lady. An’ he says to her papa, ‘I wantsh -to marry your little gyle.’ An’ what you fink dat papa said? He said, -‘No!’” (this with great emphasis). “That izhn’t as hard as he said it, -eiver, but it’s azh hard as I can say it. It’s puffikly dzedful when -Jimmy sings it. An’ Peter Gray felt awful bad den, an’ he went out -Wesht, to buy de shkinzh dat comes off of animals an’ fings, dough -how dat made him feel nicer Jimmy don’t sing ’bout. An’ bad Injuns -caught him an’ pulled his hair off, djust like ladies pull deirsh off -sometimezh. An’ when dat lady heard ’bout it, it made her feel so bad -dat she went to bed an’ died. Datsh all. Uncle Harry, ain’t you got to -be punished for somefin’, so you can tell ush a story?” - -“It’s time little boys were in bed now,” said Mrs. Burton, arising and -taking Toddie in her arms. - -“Oh, dear!” said Budge. “I wish I was a little boy in China, an’ just -gettin’ up.” - -“So does I,” said Toddie; “’cause den you would have a tay-al on your -head an’ I could pull it!” - -The boys retired, and Mrs. Burton broke her reticence so far as to tell -her husband the story she had heard in the morning, and to insist that -he was to arise early enough in the morning to unearth the buried bird -and throw it away. - -“It’s perfectly dreadful,” said she, “that those children should be -encouraged in making trifling applications of great truths, and I am -determined, as far as possible, to prevent the effects by removing the -causes.” - -And her husband put on an exasperating smile and shook his head -profoundly. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - -The sun of the next morning arose at the outrageously unfashionable -hour that he affects in June, but Mrs. Burton was up before him. -Her husband had attended a town meeting the night before, and the -forefathers of the hamlet had been so voluble that Mr. Burton had not -returned home until nearly midnight. He needed rest, and his wife -determined that he should sleep as long as possible; but there were -things dearer to her than even the comfort of her husband, and among -these were the traditions she had received concerning things mystical. -She had an intuition that her nephews would examine the grave of the -bird they had interred two days before, and she dreaded to listen to -the literal conversation and comments that would surely follow. Had -the bird been a human being, the remarks of its tender-hearted little -friends would have seemed anything but materialistic to Mrs. Burton; -but it was only a bird, and the lady realized that to answer questions -as to the soullessness of an innocent being and the comparative value -of characterless men and women was going to be no easy task. - -She therefore perfected a plan which should be fair to all concerned; -she would arouse her husband only when she heard her nephews moving; -then she would engage the young men in conversation while her husband -desecrated the grave. She would have saved considerable trouble by -locking the young men in their chamber and allowing her husband to -slumber content, but having failed to remove the key on the advent of -the boys they had found use for it themselves, and no questioning had -been able to discover its whereabouts. Meanwhile the boys were quiet, -and Mrs. Burton devoted the peaceful moments to laying out the day in -such a manner as to have the least possible trouble from her nephews. - -A violent kicking at the front door and some vigorous rings of the bell -aroused the lady from her meditation and her husband from his dreams, -while the dog Terry, who usually slept on the inner mat at the front -door, began to howl piteously. - -“Goodness!” growled Mr. Burton, rubbing his eyes, as his wife pulled -the bell-cord leading to the servants’s room. “To whom do we owe -money?” - -“Oh, I’m afraid Helen is worse, or the baby is poorly!” exclaimed Mrs. -Burton, opening the chamber-window, and shouting, “Who is there?” - -“Me,” answered a voice easily recognizable as that of Budge. - -“Me, too!” screamed a thinner but equally familiar voice. - -“We’ve got somethin’ awful lovely to tell you, Aunt Alice,” shouted -Budge. “Let us in, quick!” - -“Lovelier dan cake or pie or candy!” screamed Toddie. - -One of the servants hurried down the stairs, the door opened, light -footsteps hurried up the steps, and the dog Terry, pausing for no -morning caress from his master, hurried under the bed for refuge, from -which locality he expressed his apprehension in a dismal falsetto. -Then, with a tramp which only children can execute, and which horses -cannot approach in noisiness, came Budge and Toddie. Arrived at their -aunt’s chamber-door, each boy tried to push the other away, that he -might himself tell the story of which both were full. At last, from the -outer side of the door: - -“Dear little bydie’s gone to hebben.” - -“Yes,” said Budge, “the angels took him away.” - -“An’ de little ants all went to hebben wif him,” said Toddie. - -“Only the angels didn’t take the gravestone, too,” said Budge. “Say, -Aunt Alice, what’s the use of gravestones after folks is gone to -heaven?” - -“I know,” said Toddie. “I fought everybody knowed dat; it’s so’s folks -know where to plant lovely flowers for deir angel what was in the grave -to look down at.” - -“Now,” said Budge, with the air of a champion of a newly discovered -doctrine, “I’m just goin’ to ask papa who the folks are that don’t -believe deaders go to heaven. I’ll jist tell ’em what geese they are.” - -“Angels is dzust like birdies, isn’t they, Aunt Alice?” Toddie asked. -“’Cause dey’ got winghs an’ clawshes, too.” - -“How do you know they have claws?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“’Cause I saw deir scratch-holes in the dyte at the grave,” said -Toddie. “Dey was dzust little bits of scratchy cracks like little -bydies make. I guesh dey was little baby-angels.” - -Mr. Burton winked at his wife, who was looking greatly mystified, and -he uttered the single monosyllable: - -“Cats.” - -“How did you get out of the house, children?” Mr. Burton asked. - -“Jumped out of one of the kitchen windows,” said Budge. “But it was -so high from the ground that we couldn’t get in again that way. And I -think it’s breakfast-time; we’ve been up ’bout two hours.” - -“Now’s the time for orthodox teaching, my dear,” suggested Mr. Burton. -“Physiologists say that the mind is more active when the stomach’s -empty.” - -[Illustration: “CATS,” UTTERED MR. BURTON] - -“Thank you,” said Mrs. Burton, starting for the kitchen, “but the minds -of those boys are too active, even on full stomachs.” - -Breakfast was on the table in due time, and the boys showed -appreciation of it. After they were partly satisfied, however, Budge -asked: - -“Aunt Alice, how much longer do you suppose we can live without seeing -that dear little sister?” - -“Dear little girl sister,” said Toddie, by way of correction. - -“Oh, quite a while,” Mrs. Burton replied. “I know you love it and your -mamma too much to make either of them any trouble, and both of them are -quite feeble yet. You love them better than you love yourself, don’t -you?” - -“Certainly,” said Budge. “That’s why I want to see ’em so awful much.” - -“I fink it’s awful mean for little sishterzh not to have deir budders -to play wif,” said Toddie. - -“Well, I will think about it, and if you will both be very good, we -will go there to-day.” - -“Oh!” said Budge. “We’ll be our very goodest. I’ll tell you what, Tod; -we’ll have a Sunday-school right after breakbux; that’ll be good.” - -“I know something gooder dan that,” said Toddie. “We’ll play Daniel in -de lions’s den, and you be de king an’ take me out. Dat’ a good deal -gooder dan dzust playin’ Sunday-school; ’caush takin’ folks away from -awful bitey lions is a gooder fing dan dzust singin’ an’ prayin’, like -they do in Sunday-school.” - -“Another frightful fit of heterodoxy to be overcome, my dear,” observed -Mr. Burton. “That dreadful child is committed to the doctrine of the -superior efficacy of works over faith.” - -“I shall tell him the story of Daniel correctly,” said Mrs. Burton, -“and error will be sure to fly from the appearance of truth.” - -Mr. Burton took his departure for the day, and while his wife busied -herself in household management, the children discussed the etiquette -of the promised visit. - -“Tell you what, Tod,” said Budge, “we ought to take her presents, -anyhow. That was one of the lovaly things about Jesus being a little -baby once. You know those shepherds came an’ brought him lots of -presents.” - -“What letsh take her?” asked Toddie. - -“Well,” said Budge, “the shepherds carried money and things that -smelled sweet, so I guess that’s what we ought to do.” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “’Cept, houzh we goin’ to get ’em?” - -“We can go into the house very softly when we get home, you know,” said -Budge, “an’ shake some pennies out of our savings-bank; them’ll do for -the money. Then for things that smell sweet we can get flowers out of -the garden.” - -“Dat’ll be dzust a-givin’ her fings that’s at home already. I fink -’twould be nicer to carry her somefin’ from here, just as if we was -comin’ from where we took care of de sheep.” - -“Tell you what,” said Budge. “Let’ tease Aunt Alice for pennies. We -ought to have thought about it before Uncle Harry went away.” - -“Oh, yes!” said Toddie. “An’ dere’s a bottle of smelly stuff in Aunt -Alice’s room; we’ll get some of dat. Shall we ask her for it, or dzust -make b’lieve it’s ours?” - -“Let’s be honest ’bout it,” said Budge. “It’s wicked to hook things.” - -“’Twouldn’t be hookin’ if we took it for dat lovaly little sister -baby, would it?” asked Toddie. “’Sides, I want to s’prise Aunt Alice -an’ everybody wif de lots of presentsh I makesh to de dear little -fing.” - -“Oh! I’ll tell you what,” said Budge, forgetting the presents entirely -in his rapture over a new idea. “You know how bright the point of the -new lightning-rod on our house is? Well, we’ll make b’lieve that’s -the star in the East, an’ it’s showin’ us where to come to find the -baby.” - -“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Toddie. “An’ maybe Aunt Alice’ll carry us on -her back, and then we’ll make b’lieve we’re ridin’ camels, like -the shepherds in the picture we had Christmas, an’ tore up to make -menageries of.” - -The appearance of a large grasshopper directly in front of the boys -ended the conversation temporarily, for both started in chase of it. - -[Illustration: BOTH STARTED IN CHASE OF IT] - -Half an hour later both boys straggled into the house, panting and -dusty, and flung themselves upon the floor, when their aunt, with that -weakness peculiar to the woman who is not also a mother, asked them -where they had been, why they were out of breath, how they came by so -much dust on their clothes, and why they were so cross. Budge replied, -with a heavy sigh: - -“Big folks don’t know much about little folks’s troubles.” - -“Bad old hoppergrass, just kept a-goin’ wherever he wanted to, an’ -never comed under my hat,” complained Toddie. - -“Perhaps he knew it would not be best for you to have him, Toddie,” -said Mrs. Burton. “What would you have done with him if you had -succeeded in catching him?” - -“Tookted his hind hoppers off,” said Toddie, promptly. - -“How dreadful!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “What would you have done that -for?” - -“So’s he’d fly,” said Toddie. “The idea of anybody wif wings goin’ -awound on their hoppersh! How’d you like it if I had wings, an’ only -trotted and jumped instead of flied?” - -“My dear little boy,” said Mrs. Burton, taking her nephew on her lap, -“you must know that it’s very wrong to hurt animals in that way. They -are just as the Lord made them, and just as he wants them to be.” - -“All animals?” asked Toddie. - -“Certainly,” answered Mrs. Burton. - -“Then what for doesh you catch pitty little mices in traps an’ kill -’em?” - -Mrs. Burton hastened to give the conversation a new direction. - -“Because they’re very troublesome,” she said. “And even troublesome -people have to be punished when they meddle with other people’s things.” - -“We know that, I guess,” interposed Budge, with a sigh. - -“But,” said Mrs. Burton, hurrying forward to her point, “the animals -have nerves and flesh and blood and bones, just like little boys do, -and are just the way the Lord made them.” - -“I’ll look for the hoppergrass’s blood next time I pull one’s legsh -off,” said Toddie. - -“Don’t,” said Mrs. Burton. “You must believe what aunty tells you, and -you mustn’t trouble the poor things at all. Why, Toddie, there are real -smart men, real good men that everybody respects, that have spent their -whole lives in study of insects, like grasshoppers, and flies, and -bees----” - -“An’ never got stung?” asked Toddie. “How did dey do it?” - -“They don’t care if they are stung,” said Mrs. Burton. “They are deeply -interested in learning how animals are made. They study all kinds -of animals, and try to find out why they are different from people; -and they find out that some wee things, like grasshoppers, are more -wonderful than any person that ever lived!” - -“I should think so,” said Budge. “If I could hop like a grasshopper, -I could jump faster than any boy in the kindergarten, an’ if I could -sting like a hornet, I could wallop any boy in town.” - -“Does they adzamine big animals, too?” asked Toddie. - -“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton. “One of them has been away out West among the -dreadful Indians, just to find out what horses were like a good many -years ago.” - -“If I find out all ’bout horsesh,” said Toddie, “will everybody like -me?” - -“Very likely,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Then I’m goin’ to,” said Toddie, sliding out of his aunt’s lap. - -“Never mind about it now, dear,” said Mrs. Burton. “We are going to see -mamma and baby now. Go and dress yourselves neatly, boys.” - -Both children started, and Mrs. Burton, who was already prepared for -her trip, opened a novel, first giving herself credit for having turned -at least one perverted faculty of Toddie’s into its heaven-ordained -channel. - -“Another triumph to report to my husband,” said she, with a fine air -of exultation, as she opened her novel. “And yet,” she continued, -absent-mindedly, laying the book down again, “I believe I have found no -occasion on which to report yesterday’s victories!” - -The boys were slow to appear; but when they came down-stairs they -presented so creditable an appearance as to call for a special -compliment from their aunt. On their way to their mamma’s house they -seemed preoccupied, and they sought frequent occasions to whisper to -each other. - -Arrived at home, their impatience knew no restraint; and when the nurse -appeared with a wee bundle, topped with a little face, and lying on a -big pillow, both boys pounced upon it at once, Budge trying to crowd -several pennies into the baby’s rose-leaves of hands, while Toddie held -to its nose a bottle labeled “Liquid Bluing.” At the same time the -baby sneezed alarmingly and a strong odor of camphor pervaded the room. - -“Where can that camphor be?” asked the nurse. “There is nothing that -Mrs. Lawrence hates so intensely!” - -The baby stopped sneezing and began a pitiful wail, while Toddie -hastened to pick up the bluing-bottle; then the nurse saw that upon -the baby’s hitherto immaculate wraps there was a large stain of a -light-blue tint and emitting a strong odor of camphor. Meanwhile, -Toddie had dragged upon his aunt’s sack, held his precious bottle up to -his aunt’s nose, and exclaimed: - -“Izhn’t dat too baddy! Baby gropped it, and spilled mosht every bit of -it on her c’ozhes an’ on de floor!” - -“Where did you get that camphor, Toddie?” asked Mrs. Burton, “and why -did you bring it here?” - -“Tizhn’t campiffer,” said Toddie. “It’ pyfume; I got it out of a big -bottle on your bureau, where you makes your hankafusses smell sweet -at. Budgie an’ me done dzust what dem sheepmen did when dey came to -Beflehem to see de dear little Jesus-baby: we brought our baby money -an’ fings dat smelled sweet.” - -Mrs. Burton kissed Toddie; then the nurse fell on the floor and -displayed the baby’s face, and then the face was shadowed from the -light, and baby opened two little eyes and regarded her brothers with -a stare of queenly gravity and gentleness, and the adoration expressed -by the faces of the two boys was such as no old master ever put into -the faces in an “Adoration of the Magi,” and above them bent a face -more mature but none the less suffused with tender awe. The silence -seemed too holy and delightful to be broken, but Toddie soon looked up -inquiringly into his aunt’s face and asked: - -“Aunt Alice, why don’t dere be a lovely sun around her head like dere -is in pictures of dear little Jesus-babies?” - -The quartet became human again, and the nurse offered each of the party -a five-minute interview with the mother. Mrs. Burton emerged from the -sick-chamber with a face which her nephews could not help scrutinizing -curiously; Budge came out with the remark that he would never worry his -sweet mamma again while he lived, but Toddie exclaimed: - -“If I had a little new baby I wouldn’t stay in bed in dark roomsh all -day long. I dzust get up an’ dansh awound.” - -“Aunt Alice,” asked Budge, on the way back to his uncle’s residence, -“now there’ somebody else at our house to have a birthday, isn’t there? -When will baby sister’ birthday come--how many days?” - -“About three hundred and sixty,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Goodness!” exclaimed Budge. “And how long ’fore Christmas’ll come -again?” - -“Nearly two hundred days.” - -“Well, I think I will die if somebody don’t have a birthday pretty -soon, so I can give ’em presents.” - -“Why, you dear, generous little fellow,” said Mrs. Burton, stooping to -kiss him, “my own birthday will come to-morrow.” - -“Oh--h--h--h!” exclaimed Budge. “Say Toddie----” The remainder of -the conversation was conducted in whispers and with countenances of -extreme importance. The boys even took a different road for home, Budge -explaining to his aunt that they had a big secret to talk about. - -Mrs. Burton stopped _en route_ to ask a neighborly question or two, -and arrived at home somewhat later than her nephews. She saw a horse -and wagon at the door, and rightly imagined that they belonged to the -grocer. But what a certain white mass on the ground under the horse -could consist of Mrs. Burton was at a loss to conjecture, and she -quickened her pace only to find the white substance aforesaid resolve -itself into the neatly clothed body of her nephew, Toddie, who was -lying on his back in the dirt, and contemplating the noble animal’s -chest with serene curiosity. - -There are moments in life when dignity unbends in spite of itself, and -grace of deportment becomes a thing to be loathed. Such a moment Mrs. -Burton endured, as, dropping her parasol, she cautiously but firmly -seized Toddie and snatched him from his dangerous position. - -“Go into the house, this instant, you dirty boy!” said she, with an -imperious stamp of her foot. - -The fear in Toddie’s countenance gave place to expostulation, as he -exclaimed: - -“I was only dzust----” - -“Go into the house this instant!” repeated Mrs. Burton. - -“Ah--h--h--h!” said Toddie, beginning to cry, and rolling out his under -lip as freely as if there were yards of it yet to come. “I was only -studyin’ how the horsie was made togevver, so’s everybody’d espec’s -an’ love me. Can’t go to where dem Injuns is, so I fought a gushaway’s -[grocery] man’ horsie would be dzust as good. Ah--h--h!” - -“There was no necessity for your lying on the ground, in your clean -piqué dress, to do it,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Ah--h--h!” said Toddie again. “I studied all de west of him fyst, an’ -I couldn’t hold him up so as to look under him. I tried to, an’ he -looked at me dweadful cwosh, an’ so I didn’t.” - -“Go into the house and have another dress put on,” said Mrs. Burton. -“You know very well that nothing excuses little boys for dirtying their -clothes when they can help it. When your Uncle Harry comes home we -shall have to devise some way of punishing you so that you may remember -to take better care of your clothing in the future.” - -“Ah--h--h--h--! I hope de Lord won’t make any more horsesh, den, nor -any little boys to be told to find out about ’em, an’ be punnissed -dzust for gettin’ deir c’oshes a little dyty!” screamed Toddie, -disappearing through the doorway and filling the house with angry -screams. - -Mrs. Burton lingered for a moment upon the piazza steps, and bravely -endured a spasm of sense. There forced itself upon her mind the idea -that it might be possible that the soiling of garments was not the -sin of all sins, and that Toddie had really been affected by her -information about the noble origin and nature of the animal physique. -Certainly nothing but a sincere passion for investigation could have -led Toddie between the feet of a horse, and a person so absorbed in -scientific pursuits might possibly be excused for being regardless of -personal appearance. But clean clothing ranked next to clean hearts in -the Mayton family, and such acquirements as Mrs. Burton possessed she -determined to lovingly transmit to her nephews, so far as was in her -power. Toddie seemed in earnest in his indignation, and she respected -mistaken impressions which were honestly made, so she determined to try -to console the weeping child. Going into his room, she found her nephew -lying on his back, kicking, screaming, and otherwise giving vent to his -rage. - -“Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, “it is too bad that you should have so much -trouble just after you have been to see your mamma and little sister.” - -“I know it!” screamed Toddie, “an’ you can dzust go down-stairs again -if dat’s all you came to tell me.” - -“But, Toddie, dear,” said Mrs. Burton, kneeling and smoothing the hot -forehead of her nephew, “aunty wants to see you feeling comfortable -again.” - -“Den put me back under the horsie again, so folksh’ll ’espec’s me,” -sobbed Toddie. - -“You’ve learned enough about the horse for to-day,” said Mrs. Burton. -“I’ll ask your papa to teach you more when you go back home. Poor -little boy, how hot your cheeks are! Aunt Alice wishes she could see -you looking happy again.” - -Toddie stopped crying for a moment, looked at his aunt intently, sat -up, put on an air of importance, and said: - -“Did de Lord send you up-stairsh to tell me you was sorry for what you -done to me?” asked Toddie. “Den I forgives you, only don’t do dat baddy -way any more. If you want to put a clean dwess on me, you can.” - -“Aunt Alice,” said Budge, who had sauntered into the room, “you told -Uncle Harry at the breakbux table that you was goin’ to tell us about -Daniel to-day. Don’t you think it’s about time to do it?” - -“Oh, yes,” said Toddie, hurrying his head into his clean dress, “an’ -how de lions et up de bad men dat made de king frow Daniel in de deep -dark hole. Gwon.” - -“There was a very good young man whose name was Daniel,” said Mrs. -Burton, “and although the king made a law that nobody should pray -except to the gods that his people worshiped, Daniel prayed every day -to the same Lord that we love.” - -“He was up in heaven then, like he is now, wasn’t he?” said Budge. - -“Yes.” - -“Then where was the other people’s god?” - -“Oh, on shelves and in closets, and all sorts of places,” said Mrs. -Burton. “They were only bits of wood and stone; idols, in fact.” - -“And wasn’t they good?” - -“Not at all.” - -“Well, I don’t think that’s very nice, for papa sometimes says that I -am mamma’ idol. Am I sticky or stony?” - -“Certainly not, dear. He means that your mother cares a great deal for -you; that is all. And Daniel prayed just as he chose and when he chose, -and the people that didn’t like him hurried up the king and said, ‘Just -see, that young man for whom you care so much is praying to the Lord -that the Jews believe in.’s The king was sorry to hear this, but Daniel -wouldn’t tell a lie; he admitted that he prayed just as he wanted to, -so the king had to order some men to throw Daniel into the den of -lions. He felt very badly about it, for Daniel had been always very -good and honest, and very good people are hard to find anywhere.” - -“Musht tell mamma dat, nexsht time she saysh I must be very good,” said -Toddie. “Gwon.” - -“They threw poor Daniel in among the lions, and he must have felt -dreadful on the way to the den, for he knew that lions are very savage -and hungry. Why, one single lion will often eat up a whole man, yet -there were a great many lions in the den Daniel was taken to.” - -“He wouldn’t make much of a supper for all of them, poor fellow, would -he?” Budge asked. - -[Illustration: “TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT”] - -“No,” said Mrs. Burton, “so he did what sensible people always do -when they find themselves in trouble. He prayed. As for the king, I -imagine he didn’t sleep much that night. People who take the advice of -others and against their own better judgment, generally have to feel -uncomfortable about it. At any rate, the king was awake very early next -morning, and hurried off to the den alone, and looked in, and shouted, -‘Daniel! the Lord that you believe in, was he strong enough to keep the -lions from eating you?’ And then Daniel answered the king--think of how -happy it must have made the king to hear his voice, and know he was -not dead! The unkindness of the king had not made Daniel forget to be -respectful, so he said, ‘Oh, king, I hope you may live for ever.’s Then -he told the king that he had not been hurt at all, and the king was -very glad, and he had Daniel taken out, and then the bad men who had -been the cause of Daniel being given to the lions were all thrown into -the den themselves, and the lions ate every one of them.” - -“I know why they let Daniel alone an’ ate up all the other fellows,” -said Budge, with an air of comprehension. - -“I felt sure you would, dear little boy,” said Mrs. Burton; “but you -may tell me what you think about it.” - -“Why, you see,” said Budge, “Daniel was only one man, and he would be -only a speck apiece for all those lions--just like one single bite of -cake to a little boy. When there were plenty of men, so that each -lion could have one for himself, they made up their minds it was -dinner-time, an’ so they went to work.” - -Somehow this reply caused Mrs. Burton to forget to enforce the great -moral application of the story of Daniel, and she found it convenient -to make a sudden tour of inspection in the kitchen. She was growing -desperately conscious that, instead of instructing and controlling the -children, she had thus far done little but supply material for their -active minds and bodies to employ in manners extremely distasteful to -her. More than once she found her mind wavering between two extremes of -the theories of government--it seemed to her that she must either be -very severe, or must allow the children to naturally develop their own -faculties, within reasonable bounds. At the first she rebelled, partly -because she was not cruel by nature, as severe rulers of children -often are, and partly because the children were not her own. The other -extreme was equally distasteful, however. Were not children always made -to mind in well-regulated families? To be sure, they seldom in such -cases fulfilled, in adult years, the promise of their youth, but that, -of course, was their own fault--whose else could it be? Should adults, -should she, whose will had never been brooked by parent or husband, -set aside her own inclinations for the sake of a couple of unformed, -unreasoning minds? - -Like most other people in doubt, Mrs. Burton did nothing for a few -hours and succeeded thereby in entirely losing sight of her nephews -until nearly sunset, when, drawn by that instinct which is strongest -in the most immature natures, the boys returned for something to eat. -Though quiet, there could be no doubt about their contentment; their -clothes were very dirty, and so were their faces, but out of the latter -shone that indefinable something that is the easily read indication of -the consciousness of rectitude and satisfaction with the results of -right-doing. They were not communicative, even under much questioning, -and Mr. Burton finally said, as one in a soliloquy: - -“I wonder what it was?” - -“What are you talking about, Harry?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“I am merely wondering what original and expensive experiment they’ve -been up to now,” replied the head of the household. - -“None whatever,” said Mrs. Burton, with an energy almost startling. “I -often wonder how men can be so blind. Look at their dear, pure little -faces, dirty though they are; there’s no more consciousness of wrong -there than there could be in an angel’s face.” - -“Just so, my dear,” said Mr. Burton. “If they were oftener conscious of -misdeeds they would be worse boys, but a great deal less troublesome. -Come see uncle, boys--don’t you want a trot on my knees?” - -Both children scrambled into their uncle’ arms, and Budge began to -whisper very earnestly. - -“Yes, I suppose so,” Mr. Burton answered. - -“Goody, goody, goody!” exclaimed Budge, clapping his hands. “I’m going -to give you a birthday present to-morrow, Aunt Alice.” - -“So am I,” said Toddie. - -“It’s something to eat,” said Budge. - -“Mine, too,” said Toddie. - -“Be careful, Budge,” said Mr. Burton. “You’ll let the secret out if -you’re not careful.” - -“Oh, no, I won’t. I only said ’twas something to eat. But say, Aunt -Alice, how do bananas grow?” [said] Toddie, with brightening eyes and a -confident shake of his curly head. - -“And I know,” said Mr. Burton, lifting Toddie suddenly from his knee, -“that either a certain little boy is breaking to pieces and spilling -badly, or something else is. What’ this?” he continued, noticing a very -wet spot on Toddie’s apron, just under which his pocket was. “And” -(here he opened Toddie’ pocket and looked into it) “what is that vile -muss in your pocket?” - -Toddie’s eyes opened in wonder, and then his countenance fell. - -“’Twash only a little bunch,” said he, “an’ I was goin’ to eat it on -de way home, but I forgotted it!” - -“They’re white grapes, my dear,” said Mr. Burton. “The boys have been -robbing somebody’s hothouse; Tom has no grapes in his. Where did you -get these, boys?” - -“Sh--h--h!” whispered Toddie, impressively. “Nobody musht never tell -secretsh.” - -“Where did you get those grapes?” demanded Mrs. Burton, hastening to -the examination of the dripping dress. - -Toddie burst into tears. - -“I should think you would cry!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton; “after stealing -people’ fruit.” - -“Isn’t cryin’ ’bout dat,” sobbed Toddie. “I’ze cryin’ ’caush youze -a-spoilin’ my s’prise for your bifeday ev’ry minute you’ a-talkin’!” - -“Alice, Alice!” said Mr. Burton, softly. “Remember that the poor child -is not old enough to have learned what stealing means.” - -“Then he shall learn now!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, all of her righteous -sense upon the alert. “What do you suppose would become of you if you -were to die to-night?” - -“Won’t die!” sobbed Toddie. “If angel comes to kill me like he did the -’Gyptians, I’ll hide.” - -“No one could hide from the angel of the Lord,” said Mrs. Burton, -determined that fear should do what reason could not. - -“Why, he doesn’t carry no lanternzh wif him in de night-time, does he?” -said Toddie. - -Mr. Burton laughed but his wife silenced him with a glance and answered: - -“He can see well enough to find bad little boys when he wants them.” - -“Ain’t bad,” screamed Toddie, “an’ I won’t give you de uvver grapes -now, dat we brought home in a flower-pot.” - -“Come to uncle, old boy,” said Mr. Burton, taking the doleful child -upon his knee again, and caressing him tenderly. “Tell uncle all about -it, and he’ll see if you can’t be set all right.” - -“An’ not let de killey angel come catch me?” asked Toddie. - -[Illustration: “WE GOT THREE OR FOUR NICE BUNCHES”] - -“I’ll tell you, Uncle Harry,” said Budge. “We was goin’ to give Aunt -Alice fruit for her birthday--me bananas an’ Tod white grapes. We -didn’t know where any bananas growed, but Mr. Bushman, way off along -the mountain, has got lots of lovely grapes in his greenhouse, ’cause -we went there once with papa, and they talked ’bout grapes an’ things -’most all afternoon, an’ he told him to come help himself whenever -he wanted any. So we made up a great secret, an’ we went up there -this afternoon to ask him to give us some for our aunt, ’cause ’twas -goin’ to be her birthday. But he wasn’t home, and the greenhouse man -wasn’t there either; but the door was open, an’ we went in an’ saw -the grapes, an’ we made up our minds that he wouldn’t care if we took -some, ’cause he told papa to. So we got three or four nice bunches, and -put ’em in a flower-pot with leaves in it, and each of us got a little -bunch to eat ourselves; but we found lots of wild strawberries on the -way back, so Tod forgot his grapes, I guess, but mine’s safe in my -stomach. An’ ’twas awful hot an’ dusty, an’ I never got so tired in -my life. But we wanted to make Aunt Alice happy, so we didn’t care.” - -“An’ then she said we was fiefs!” sobbed Toddie. “Bad old fing!” - -“Never mind, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, all her moral purpose taking -flight as she kissed the tear-stained, dirty little cheeks, and carried -her nephew to the dinner-table. - -[Illustration: “SO I PUTTED CROSSES ON THE DOOR”] - -Toddie’s meal was quickly dispatched. He seemed preoccupied, and -hurried away from the table, though he was quite ready to go to bed -when summoned by his aunt. Half an hour later Mr. Burton, sauntering -out to the piazza to smoke, saw a large, rude cross, in red ink, -on either side of the door-frame. Even men have weaknesses, and a -fastidiousness about the appearance of his house was one of Mr. -Burton’. He dashed up the stairs, three steps at a time, and burst into -his nephew’s room, exclaiming: - -“Who daubed the door with ink?” - -“Me,” said Toddie, boldly. “I was afraid you’d forget to tell dat -killey angel I wasn’t any fief, so I putted crosses on de door, like de -Izzyrelites did, so he would go a-past. He wouldn’t know de ink wasn’t -blood, I guess, in de night-time.” - -Toddie suddenly found himself alone again. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -Mrs. Burton’s birthday dawned brightly, and it is not surprising that -as it was her first natal anniversary since her marriage to a man who -had no intention or ability to cease being a lover, her ante-breakfast -moments were too fully and happily occupied to allow her to even -think of two little boys who had already impressed upon her their -willingness and general ability to think for themselves. As for the -boys themselves, they woke with the lark, and with a heavy sense of -responsibility also. The room of Mrs. Burton’s chambermaid joined their -own, and the occupant of that room having been charged by her mistress -with the general care of the boys between dark and daylight, she had -grown accustomed to wake at the first sound in the boys’s room. On the -morning of her mistress’s birthday the first sound she heard was: - -“Tod?” - -No response could be heard; but a moment later the chambermaid heard: - -“T--o--o--od!” - -“Ah--h--h--ow!” drawled a voice, not so sleepily but it could sound -aggrieved. - -“Wake up, dear old Toddie budder. It’ Aunt Alice’s birthday now.” - -“Needn’t bweak my earzh open, if ’tis,” whined Toddie. - -“I only holloed in one ear, Tod,” remonstrated Budge, “an’ you ought -to love dear Aunt Alice enough to have that hurt a little rather than -not wake up.” - -A series of groans, snarls, whines, grunts, snorts, and remonstrances -semi-articulate were heard, and at length some complicated wriggles and -convulsive kicks were made manifest to the listening ear, and Budge -said: - -“That’s right! Now let’s get up an’ get ready. Say; do you know -that we didn’t think anything about having some music? Don’t you -remember how papa played the piano last mamma’s birthday when she came -down-stairs, an’ how happy it made her, an’ we danced around?” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “Let’.” - -“Tell you what,” said Budge. “Let’ both bang the piano, like mamma an’ -Aunt Alice does together sometimes.” - -“Oh, yesh!” Toddie exclaimed. “We can make some awful big bangsh -before she can get down to tell us to don’t.” - -Then there was heard a scurrying of light feet as the boys picked -up their various articles of clothing from the corners, chairs, -bureau, table, etc., where they had been tossed the night before. -The chambermaid hurried to their assistance, and both boys were soon -dressed. A plate containing bananas, and another with the hard-earned -grapes, were on the bureau, and the boys took them and tiptoed down the -stair and into the dining-room. - -“Gwacious!” said Toddie, as he placed his plate on the sideboard; -“maybe the gwapes an’ buttonanoes has got sour. I guesh we’d better -try ’em, like mamma does de milk on hot morningsh when the baddy -milkman don’t come time enough.” Toddie suited the action to the word -by plucking from a cluster the handsomest grape in sight. “I fink,” -said he, smacking his lips with the suspicious air of a professional -taster; “I fink dey is gettin’ sour.” - -“Let’s see,” said Budge. - -“No,” said Toddie, plucking another grape with one hand while with the -other he endeavored to cover his gift. “Ize bid enough to do it all -myself. Unless,” he added, as a happy inspiration struck him, “you’ll -let me help see if your buttonanoes is sour.” - -“Then you can only have one bite,” said Budge. “You must let me taste -about six grapes, ’cause ’twould take that many to make one of your -bites on a banana.” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie; and the boys proceeded to exchange duties, -Budge taking the precaution to hold the banana himself, so that his -brother should not abstractedly sample a second time, and Toddie doling -out the grapes with careful count. - -“They are a little sour,” said Budge, with a wry face. “Perhaps some -other bunch is better. I think we’d better try each one, don’t you?” - -“An’ each one of the buttonanoes, too,” suggested Toddie. “Dat one -wazh pretty good, but maybe some of the others isn’t.” - -The proposition was accepted, and soon each banana had its length -reduced by a fourth, and the grape-clusters displayed a fine -development of wood. Then Budge seemed to realize that his present was -not as sightly as it might be, for he carefully closed the skins at the -ends, and turned the unbroken ends to the front as deftly as if he -were a born retailer of fruit. - -[Illustration: “THEN YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE BITE,” SAID BUDGE] - -This done, he exclaimed: “Oh! we want our cards on ’em, else how will -she know who they came from?” - -“We’ll be here to tell her,” said Toddie. - -“Huh!” said Budge; “that wouldn’t make her half so happy. Don’t you -know how when cousin Florence gets presents of flowers, she’s always -happiest when she’ lookin’ at the card that comes with ’em?” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie, hurrying into the parlor, and returning with -the cards of a lady and gentleman, taken haphazard from his aunt’s -card-receiver. - -“Now, we must write ‘Happy Birthday’ on the backs of ’em,” said Budge, -exploring his pockets, and extracting a stump of a lead pencil. “Now,” -continued Budge, leaning over the card, and displaying all the facial -contortions of the unpractised writer, as he laboriously printed, in -large letters, speaking, as he worked, a letter at a time: - -“H--A--P--P--E B--U--R--F--D--A--Happy Birthday. Now, you must hold the -pencil for yours, or else it won’t be so sweet; that’s what mamma says.” - -Toddie took the pencil in his pudgy hand, Budge guided it, and two -juvenile heads touched each other and swayed and twisted and bobbed in -unison until the work was completed. - -“Now, I think she ought to come,” said Budge. (Breakfast-time was still -more than an hour distant.) “Why, the rising-bell hasn’t rung yet! -Let’s ring it!” - -The boys fought for possession of the bell, but superior might -conquered and Budge marched up and down the hall, ringing with the -enthusiasm and duration peculiar to the amateur. - -“Bless me!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, hastening to complete her toilet. -“How time does fly--sometimes!” - -Mr. Burton saw something in his wife’ face that called for lover-like -treatment, but it was not without a sense of injury that he exclaimed, -immediately after, as he drew forth his watch: - -“I declare! I would make an affidavit that we hadn’t been awake half an -hour. Ah! I forgot to wind my watch last night.” - -The boys hurried into the parlor. - -“I hear ’em trampin’ around!” exclaimed Budge, in great excitement. -“There!--the piano’s shut! Isn’t that too mean? Oh, I’ll tell you; -here’s Uncle Harry’s violin.” - -“But whatsh I goin’ to play on?” asked Toddie, dancing frantically -about. - -“Wait a minute,” said Budge, dropping the violin, and hurrying to the -floor above, from which he speedily returned with a comb. A bound -volume of the _Portfolio_ lay upon the table, and opening this, Budge -tore the tissue paper from one of the etchings and wrapped the comb in -it. - -“There!” said he, “you fiddle an’ I’ll blow the comb. Goodness! why -don’t they come down? Oh, we forgot to put pennies under the plate, and -we don’t know how many years old to put ’em for.” - -“An’ we ain’t got no pennies,” said Toddie. - -“I know,” said Budge, hurrying to a cabinet in a drawer of which his -uncle kept the nucleus of a collection of American coinage. “This kind -of pennies,” Budge continued, “isn’t as pretty as our kind, but they’re -bigger, an’ they’ll look better on a table-cloth. Now, how old do you -think she is?” - -“I dunno,” said Toddie, going into a reverie of hopeless conjecture. -“She’s about as big as you an’ me put togevver.” - -“Well,” said Budge, “you’re four an’ I’m six, an’ four an’ six is -ten--I guess ten’ll be about the thing.” - -Mrs. Burton’s plate was removed, and the pennies were deposited in -a circle. There was some painful counting and recounting, and many -disagreements, additions and subtractions. Finally, the pennies were -arranged in four rows, two of three each and two of two each, and Budge -counted the threes and Toddie verified the twos, and Budge was adding -the four sums together, when footsteps were heard descending the stairs. - -Budge hastily dropped the surplus coppers upon the four rows, replaced -the plate, and seized the comb as Toddie placed the violin against -his knee as he had seen small, itinerant Italians do. A second or two -later, as the host and hostess entered the dining-room, there arose a -sound which caused Mrs. Burton to clap her fingers to her ears, while -her husband exclaimed: - -“’Scat!” - -Then both boys dropped their instruments, Toddie finding the ways of -his own feet seriously compromised by the strings of the violin, while -both children turned happy faces toward their aunt, and shouted: - -“Happy Burfday!” - -Mr. Burton hurried to the rescue of his darling instrument, while his -wife gave each boy an appreciative kiss, and showed them a couple of -grateful tears. Her eye was caught by the fruit on the sideboard, and -she read the cards aloud: - -“Mrs. Frank Rommery--this is just like her effusiveness. I’ve never met -her but once, but I suppose her bananas must atone for her lack of -manners. Why, Charley Crewne! Dear me! What memories some men have!” - -A cloud came upon Mr. Burton’s brow. Charley Crewne had been one of his -rivals for Miss Mayton’s hand, and Mrs. Burton was looking a trifle -thoughtful, and her husband was as unreasonable as newly made husbands -often are, when Mrs. Burton exclaimed: - -“Some one has been picking the grapes off in the most shameful manner. -Boys!” - -“Ain’t from no Rommerys an’ Crewnes!” said Toddie. “Devsh from me an’ -Budgie, an’ we dzust tasted ’em to see if dey’d got sour in the night.” - -“Where did the cards come from?” asked Mrs Burton. - -“Out of the basket in the parlor,” said Budge. “But the back is the -nice part of ’em.” - -Mrs. Burton’s thoughtful expression and her husband’s frown disappeared -together as they seated themselves at the table. Both boys wriggled -vigorously until their aunt raised her plate, and then Budge exclaimed: - -“A penny for each year, you know.” - -“Thirty-one!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, after counting the heap. “How -complimentary!” - -“What doesh you do for little boys on your bifeday?” asked Toddie, -after breakfast was served. “Mamma does lots of fings.” - -[Illustration: “WHERE DID THE CARDS COME FROM?”] - -“Yes,” said Budge, “she says she thinks people ought to get their own -happy by makin’ other people happy. An’ mamma knows better than you, -you know, ’cause she’s been married longest.” - -Although Mrs. Burton admitted the facts, the inference seemed scarcely -natural, and she said so. - -“Well--a--a--a--a--anyhow,” said Toddie, “mamma always has parties on -her bifeday, an’ we hazh all de cake we want.” - -“You shall be happy to-day,” said Mrs. Burton; “for a few friends will -be in to see me this afternoon, and I am going to have a nice little -luncheon for them, and you shall lunch with us, if you will be very -good until then, and keep yourselves clean and neat.” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “Izhn’t it most time now?” - -“Tod’s all stomach,” said Budge. “Say, Aunt Alice, I hope you won’t -forget to have some fruit-cake. That’s the kind we like best.” - -“You’ll come home very early, Harry?” asked Mrs. Burton, ignoring her -nephew’ question. - -“By noon, at furthest,” said the gentleman. “I only want to see my -morning letters, and fill any orders that may be in them.” - -“What are you coming so early for, Uncle Harry?” asked Budge. - -“To take Aunt Alice riding, old boy,” said Mr. Burton. - -“Oh! just listen, Tod! Won’t that be jolly? Uncle Harry’s going to take -us riding!” - -“I said I was going to take your Aunt Alice, Budge,” said Mr. Burton. - -“I heard you,” said Budge, “but that won’t trouble us any. She always -likes to talk to you better than she does to us. Where are we going?” - -Mr. Burton asked his wife, in German, whether the Lawrence-Burton -assurance was not charmingly natural, and Mrs. Burton answered in the -same tongue that it was, but was none the less deserving of rebuke, -and that she felt it her duty to tone it down in her nephews. Mr. -Burton wished her joy of the attempt, and asked a number of searching -questions about success already attained, until Mrs. Burton was glad to -see Toddie come out of a brown study and hear him say: - -“I fink dat placesh where de river is bwoke off izh de nicest placesh.” - -“What does the child mean?” asked his aunt. - -“Don’t you know where we went last year, an’ you stopped us from -seein’ how far we could hang over, Uncle Harry?” said Budge. - -“Oh! Passaic Falls!” exclaimed Mr. Burton. - -“Yes, that’s it,” said Budge. - -“Old riverzh bwoke wight in two dere,” said Toddie, “an’ a piece of -it’s way up in de air, an’ anuvver piece izh way down in big hole in -de stones. Datsh where I want to go widin’.” - -“Listen, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton. “We like to take you riding with -us at most times, but to-day we prefer to go alone. You and Budge will -stay at home. We sha’n’t be gone more than two hours.” - -“Wantsh to go a-widin’,” exclaimed Toddie. - -“I know you do, dear, but you must wait until some other day.” - -“But I wantsh to go,” Toddie explained. - -“And I don’t want you to, so you can’t,” said Mrs. Burton in a tone -which would reduce any reasonable person to hopelessness. But Toddie, -in spite of manifest astonishment, remarked: - -“Wantsh to go a-widin’.” - -“Now the fight is on,” murmured Mr. Burton to himself. Then he arose -hastily from the table and said: - -“I think I’ll try to catch the earlier train, my dear, as I am coming -back so soon.” - -Mrs. Burton arose to bid her husband good-by, and was kissed with -more than usual tenderness, and then held at arm’ length, while -manly eyes looked into her own with an expression which she found -untranslatable--for two hours, at least. Mrs. Burton saw her husband -fairly on his way, and then she returned to the dining-room, led Toddie -into the parlor, took him on her lap, wound her arms tenderly about -him, and said: - -“Toddie, dear, listen carefully to what Aunt Alice tells you. There -are some reasons why you boys should not go with us to-day, and Aunt -Alice means what she says when she tells you you can’t go with us. If -you were to ask a hundred times it would not make the slightest bit of -difference. You cannot go, and you must stop thinking about it.” - -Toddie listened intelligently from beginning to end, and replied: - -“But I wantsh to go.” - -“And you can’t. That ends the matter.” - -“No, it don’t,” said Toddie; “not a single bittie. I wantsh to go -badder dan ever.” - -“But you are not going.” - -“I wantsh to go so baddy,” said Toddie, beginning to cry. - -“I suppose you do, and auntie is very sorry for you, but that does not -alter the case. When grown people say ‘No!’ little boys must understand -that they mean it.” - -“But what I wantsh izh to go a-widin’ wif you.” - -“And what I want is, that you shall stay at home; so you must. Let -us have no more talk about it now. Shouldn’t you like to go into the -garden and pick some strawberries all for yourself?” - -“No, I’d like to go widin’.” - -“Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, “don’t let me hear one more word about -riding.” - -“Well, I want to go.” - -“Toddie, I will have to punish you if you say any more on this subject, -and that will make me very unhappy. You don’t want to make auntie -unhappy on her birthday, do you?” - -“No; but I do want to go a-widin’.” - -“Listen, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, with an imperious stamp of her -foot, and a sudden loss of her entire stock of patience. “If you say -one more word about that trip, I shall lock you in the attic chamber, -where you were the day before yesterday, and Budge shall not be with -you.” - -Toddie gave vent to a torrent of tears, and screamed: - -“A--h--h--h! I don’t want to be locked up, an’ I do want to go -a-widin’!” - -[Illustration: HE KICKED, PUSHED, SCREAMED AND ROARED] - -Toddie suddenly found himself clasped tightly in his aunt’ arms, in -which position he kicked, pushed, screamed and roared during the -passage of two flights of stairs. The moment of his final incarceration -was marked by a piercing shriek which escaped from the attic-window, -causing the dog Terry to retire precipitately from a pleasing lounging -place on the well-curb, and making a passing farmer to rein up his -horses and maintain a listening position for the space of five minutes. -Meanwhile Mrs. Burton descended to the parlor, more flushed, untidy and -angry than any one had ever seen her. She soon encountered the gaze of -her nephew Budge, and it was full of solemnity, inquiry and reproach. - -“How would you like to be carried up-stairs screamin’ an’ put in a -lonely room, just ’cause you wanted to go ridin’?” Budge asked. - -Mrs. Burton was unable to imagine herself in any such position, but -replied: - -“I should never be so foolish as to keep on wanting what I knew I could -not have.” - -“Why!” exclaimed Budge. “Are grown folks as smart as all that?” - -Mrs. Burton’s conscience smote her not overlightly, and she hastened -to change the subject, and to devote herself assiduously to Budge, as -if to atone for some injury which she might have done his brother. An -occasional howl which fell from the attic-window increased her zeal for -Budge’s comfort; under each one, however, her resolution grew weaker, -and, finally, with a hypocritical excuse to Budge, she hurried up to -the door of Toddie’s prison and said through the keyhole: - -“Toddie?” - -“What?” - -“Will you be a good boy, now?” - -“Yesh, if you’ll take me a-widin’.” - -Mrs. Burton turned abruptly away, and simply flew down the stairs. -Budge, who awaited her at the foot, instinctively stood aside, and -exclaimed: - -“I thought you was goin’ to tumble! Why didn’t you bring him down?” - -“Bring who?” - -“Oh, I know what you went up-stairs for,” said Budge. “Your eyes told -me all about it.” - -“You’re certainly a rather inconvenient companion,” said Mrs. Burton, -averting her face, “and I want you to run home and ask how your mamma -and baby-sister are. Don’t stay long: remember that luncheon will be -earlier than usual to-day.” - -Away went Budge, and Mrs. Burton devoted herself to thought. -Unquestioning obedience had been her own duty since she could -remember, yet she was certain that her will was as strong as Toddie’. -If she had been always able to obey, certainly the unhappy little boy -in the attic was equally capable; why should he not do it? Perhaps, she -admitted to herself, she had inherited a faculty in this direction, and -perhaps--yes, certainly, Toddie had done nothing of the sort. How was -she to overcome the defect in his disposition; or was she to do it at -all? Was it not something with which no one temporarily having a child -in charge should interfere? - -An occasional scream from Toddie helped to unbend the severity of her -principles, but suddenly her eye rested upon a picture of her husband, -and she seemed to see in one of the eyes a quizzical expression. All -her determination came back in an instant with heavy re-enforcements, -and Budge came back a few moments later. His bulletins from home, and -his stores of experiences _en route_ consumed but a few moments, and -then Mrs. Burton proceeded to dress for her ride. To exclude Toddie’s -screams she closed her door tightly, but Toddie’s voice was one with -which all timber seemed in sympathy, and it pierced door and window -apparently without effort. Gradually, however, it seemed to cease, and -with the growing infrequency of his howls and the increasing feebleness -of their utterance, Mrs. Burton’s spirits revived. Dressing leisurely, -she ascended to Toddie’s prison to receive his declaration of penitence -and to accord a gracious pardon. She knocked softly at the door and -said: - -“Toddie?” - -There was no response, so Mrs. Burton knocked and called with more -energy than before, but without reply. A terrible fear occurred to -her; she had heard of children who screamed themselves to death when -angry. Hastily she opened the door, and saw Toddie, tear-stained and -dirty, lying on the floor, fast asleep. She stooped over him to be sure -that he still breathed, and then the expression on his sweetly parted -lips was such that she could not help kissing it. Then she raised the -pathetic, desolate little figure softly in her arms, and the little -head dropped upon her shoulder and nestled close to her, and one little -arm was clasped tightly around her neck, and a soft voice murmured: - -“I wantsh to go a-widin’.” - -Just then Mr. Burton entered, and, with an exasperating affectation of -ingenuousness and uncertainty asked: - -“Did you conquer his will, my dear?” - -His wife annihilated him with a look, and led the way to the -dining-room; meanwhile, Toddie awoke, straightened himself, rubbed his -eyes, recognized his uncle, and exclaimed: - -“Uncle Harry, does you know where we’ goin’ dis afternoon? We’s goin’ -a-widin’.” - -Mr. Burton hid in his napkin the half of his face that was below his -eyes, and his wife wished that his eyes might have been hidden too, for -never in her life had she been so averse to having her own eyes looked -into. - -The saintliness of both boys during the afternoon’s ride took the -sting out of Mrs. Burton’s defeat. They gabbled to each other about -flowers and leaves and birds, and they assumed ownership of the few -summer clouds that were visible, and made sundry exchanges of them with -each other. When the dog Terry, who had surreptitiously followed the -carriage and grown weary, was taken in by his master they even allowed -him to lie at their feet without kicking, pinching his ears or pulling -his tail. - -[Illustration: THE JARDINIÈRE CAME DOWN WITH A CRASH] - -As for Mrs. Burton, no right-minded husband could wilfully torment his -wife upon her birthday, so she soon forgot the humiliation of the -morning, and came home with superb spirits and matchless complexion -for the little party. Her guests soon began to arrive, and after the -company had assembled Mrs. Burton’s chambermaid ushered in Budge and -Toddie, each in spotless attire, and the dog Terry ushered himself in, -and Toddie saw him and made haste to interview him, and the two got -inextricably mixed about the legs of a light jardinière, and it came -down with a crash, and then the two were sent into disgrace, which -suited them exactly, although there was a difference between them as to -whether the dog Terry should seek and enjoy the seclusion upon which -his heart was evidently intent. - -Then Budge retired with a face full of brotherly solicitude, and Mrs. -Burton was enabled to devote herself to the friends to whom she had not -previously been able to address two consecutive sentences. - -Mrs. Burton occasionally suggested to her husband that it might be -well to see where the boys were and what they were doing, but that -gentleman had seldom before found himself the only man among a dozen -comely and intelligent ladies, and he was too conscious of the rarity -of such experiences to trouble himself about a couple of people who had -unlimited ability to keep themselves out of sight, so the boys were -undisturbed for the space of two hours. A sudden summer shower came up -in the meantime, and a sentimental young lady requested the song “The -Rain upon the Roof,” and Mrs. Burton and her husband began to render it -as a duet; but in the middle of the second stanza Mrs. Burton began to -cough, and Mr. Burton sniffed the air apprehensively, while several of -the ladies started to their feet, while others turned pale. The air of -the room was evidently filling with smoke. - -“There can’t be any danger, ladies,” said Mrs. Burton. “You all know -what the American domestic servant is. I suppose our cook, with her -delicate sense of the appropriate, is relighting her fire, and has the -kitchen door wide open, so that all the smoke may escape through the -house instead of the chimney. I’ll go and stop it.” - -The mere mention of servants had its usual effect; the ladies began at -once that animated conversation which this subject has always inspired, -and which it will probably continue to inspire until all housekeepers -gather in that happy land, one of whose charms it is that the American -kitchen is undiscernible within its borders, and the purified domestic -may stand before her mistress without needing a scolding. But one -nervous young lady, whose agitation was being manifested by her feet -alone, happened to touch with the toe of her boot the turn-screw of -a hot-air register. Instantly she sprang back and uttered a piercing -scream, while from the register there arose a thick column of smoke. - -“Fire!” screamed one lady. - -“Water!” shrieked another. - -“Oh!” shouted several in chorus. - -Some ran up-stairs, others into the rainy street, the nervous young -lady fainted, a business-like young matron, who had for years been -maturing plans of operation in case of fire, hastily swept into a -table-cover a dozen books in special morocco bindings, and hurried -through the rain with them to a house several hundred feet away, while -the faithful dog Terry, scenting the trouble afar off, hurried home -and did his duty to the best of his ability by barking and snapping -furiously at every one, and galloping frantically through the house, -leaving his mark upon almost every square yard of carpet. Meanwhile -Mr. Burton hurried up-stairs coatless, with disarranged hair, dirty -hands, smirched face, and assured the ladies that there was no danger, -while Budge and Toddie, the former deadly pale, and the latter almost -apoplectic in color, sneaked up to their own chamber. - -The company dispersed; ladies who had expected carriages did not wait -for them, but struggled to the extreme verge of politeness for the -use of such umbrellas and waterproof cloaks as Mrs. Burton could -supply. Fifteen minutes later the only occupant of the parlor was the -dog Terry, who lay, with alert head, in the centre of a large Turkish -chair. Mrs. Burton, tenderly supported by her husband, descended the -stair, and contemplated with tightly compressed lips and blazing eyes -the disorder of her desolated parlor. When, however, she reached the -dining-room and beheld the exquisitely set table, to the arrangement of -which she had devoted hours of thought in preceding days and weeks, she -burst into a flood of tears. - -“I’ll tell you how it was,” said Budge, who appeared suddenly and -without invitation, and whose consciousness of good intention made him -as adamant before the indignant frowns of his uncle and aunt, “I always -think bonfires is the nicest things about celebrations, an’ Tod an’ -me have been carryin’ sticks for two days to make a big bonfire in the -back yard to-day. But it rained, an’ rainy sticks won’t burn. So we -thought we’d make one in the cellar, ’cause the top is all tin, an’ -the bottom’s all dirt, an’ it can’t rain in there at all. An’ we got -lots of newspapers and kindlin’-wood, an’ put some kerosene on it, -an’ it blazed up beautiful, an’ we was just comin’ up to ask you -all down to look at it, when in came Uncle Harry, an’ banged me against -the wall an’ Tod into the coal heap, an’ threw a mean old dirty -carpet on top of it, an’ wetted it all over.” - -“Little boysh never can do anyfing nysh wivout bein’ made to don’t,” -said Toddie. “Dzust see what an awful big splinter I got in my hand -when I was froin’ wood on de fire! I didn’t cry a bit about it den, -’cause I fought I was makin’ uvver folks happy, like de Lord wants -little boysh to. But dey didn’t get happy, so now I’m goin’ to cry -’bout de splinter!” - -And Toddie raised a howl which was as much superior to his usual cry as -things made to order generally are to the ordinary supply. - -“We had a torchlight procession too,” said Budge. “We had to have it in -the attic, but it wasn’t very nice. There wasn’t any trees up there for -the light to dance around on, like it does on ’lection-day nights. So -we just stopped, an’ would have felt real doleful if we hadn’t thought -of the bonfire.” - -“Where did you leave the torches?” asked Mr. Burton, springing from his -chair, and lifting his wife to her feet at the same time. - -[Illustration: “THREW A MEAN OLD DIRTY CARPET ON TOP OF IT”] - -“I--I dunno,” said Budge, after a moment of thought. - -“Froed ’em in a closet so’s not to dyty de nice floor wif ’em,” said -Toddie. - -Mr. Burton hurried up-stairs and extinguished a smoldering heap of -rags, while his wife, truer to herself than she imagined she was, drew -Budge to her, and said, kindly: - -“Wanting to make people happy, and doing it, are two very different -things, Budge.” - -“Yes, I should think they was,” said Budge, with an emphasis which -explained much that was left unsaid. - -“Little boysh is goosies for tryin’ to make big folksh happy at all,” -said Toddie, beginning again to cry. - -“Oh, no, they’re not, dear,” said Mrs. Burton, taking the sorrowful -child on her lap. “But they don’t always understand how best to do it, -so they ought to ask big folks before they begin.” - -“Den dere wouldn’t be no s’prises,” complained Toddie. “Say, izh we -goin’ to eat all dis supper?” - -“I suppose so, if we can,” sighed Mrs. Burton. - -“I guesh we can--Budgie an’ me,” said Toddie. “An’ won’t we be glad -all them wimmens wented away!” - -That evening, after the boys had retired, Mrs. Burton seemed a little -uneasy of mind, and at length she said to her husband: - -“I feel guilty at never having directed the boys’s devotions since they -have been here, and I know no better time than the present in which to -begin.” - -Mr. Burton’s eyes followed his wife reverently as she left the room. -The service she proposed to render the children she had sometimes -performed for himself, with results for which he could not be grateful -enough, and yet it was not with unalloyed anticipation that he softly -followed her up the stair. Mrs. Burton went into the chamber and found -the boys playing battering-ram, each with a pillow in front of him. - -“Children,” said she, “have you said your prayers?” - -“No,” said Budge; “somebody’s got to be knocked down first. Then we -will.” - -A sudden tumble by Toddie was the signal for devotional exercises, and -both boys knelt beside the bed. - -“Now, darlings,” said Mrs. Burton, “you have made some sad mistakes -to-day, and they should teach you that, even when you want most to do -right, you need to be helped by somebody better. Don’t you think so?” - -“I do,” said Budge. “Lots.” - -“I don’t,” said Toddie. “More help I getsh, de worse fings is. Guesh -I’ll do fings all alone affer dish.” - -“I know what to say to the Lord to-night, Aunt Alice,” said Budge. - -“Dear little boy,” said Mrs. Burton. “Go on.” - -“Dear Lord,” said Budge, “we do have the awfullest times when we try to -make other folks happy. Do, please, Lord, please teach big folks how -hard little folks have to think before they do things for ’em. An’ make -’em understand little folks every way better than they do, so that they -don’t make little folks unhappy when they try to make big folks feel -jolly. Make big folks have to think as hard as little folks do. Amen! -Oh yes, an’ bless dear mamma an’ the sweet little sister baby. How’s -that, Aunt Alice?” - -Mrs. Burton did not reply, and Budge, on turning, saw only her -departing figure, while Toddie remarked: - -“Now it’s my tyne. Dear Lord, when I getsh to be a little boy anzel up -in hebben, don’t let growed-up anzels come along whenever I’m doin’ -anyfing nysh for ’em, an’ say ’don’t’s or tumble me down in heaps of -nashty old black coal. Dere! Amen!” - - - - -CHAPTER V - - -It was with a sneaking sense of relief that Mrs. Burton awoke on the -following morning, and realized that the day was Sunday. - -“Even school-teachers have two days of rest in every seven,” she said -to herself, “and no one doubts that they deserve them. How much more -deserving of rest and relief must be the volunteer teacher who, not for -a few hours only, but from dawn to twilight, has charge of two children -whose capacity for both learning and mischief surely equals any school -full of boys.” - -The feeling that she was attempting for a few days only that which -mothers everywhere were doing without hope of rest excepting in heaven, -made her feel humble and worthless, but it did not banish her wish to -turn the children over to the care of their uncle for the day. Thoughts -of a Sunday excursion, from participation in which she should in some -way excuse herself; of volunteering to relieve her sister-in-law’s -nurse during the day, and thus leaving her husband, in charge of the -house and the children; of making that visit to her mother which is -always in order with the young wife--all these, and other devices not -so practicable, came before her mind’s eye for comparison, but they all -and together took sudden wing when her husband awoke and complained of -a raging toothache. Truly pitiful and sympathetic as Mrs. Burton was, -she exhibited remarkable resignation in the face of the thought that -her husband would probably need to remain in his room all day, and -that it would be absolutely necessary to keep the children out of his -sight and hearing. Then he could find nothing to criticise; she might -fail frequently, as she probably would, but he would know only of her -successes. - -A light knock was heard at Mrs. Burton’s door, and then, without waiting -for invitation there came in two fresh, rosy faces, two heads of -disarranged hair, and two long white night-gowns, and the occupant of -the longer gown exclaimed: - -“Say, Uncle Harry, do you know it’s Sunday? What are you going to do -about it? We always have lots done for us Sundays, ’cause it’s the only -day papa’s home.” - -“Yes, I--think I’ve heard--something of the kind--before,” mumbled Mr. -Burton, with difficulty, between the fingers that covered his aching -tooth. - -[Illustration: TODDIE PLAYING BEAR] - -“Oh--h,” exclaimed Toddie, “I b’lieve he’s goin’ to play bear! Come -on, Budgie, we’s got to be dogs.” And Toddie buried his face in the -bed-covering and succeeded in fastening his teeth in his uncle’s calf. -A howl from the sufferer did not frighten off the amateur dog, and -he was finally dislodged only by being clutched by the throat by his -victim. - -“Dat izhn’t de way to play bear,” complained Toddie. “You ought to -keep on a-howlin’, an’ let me keep on a-bitin’, an’ den you give me -pennies to stop. Dat’s de way papa does.” - -“Can you see how Tom Lawrence can be so idiotic?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“I suppose I could,” replied the sufferer, “if I hadn’t such a -toothache.” - -“You poor old fellow!” said Mrs. Burton, tenderly. Then she turned to -her nephews, and exclaimed: “Now, boys, listen to me! Uncle Harry is -very sick to-day--he has a dreadful toothache, and every particle of -bother and noise will make it worse. You must both keep away from his -room, and be as quiet as possible wherever you may be in the house. -Even the sound of people talking is very annoying to a person with the -toothache.” - -“Den you’s a baddy woman to stay in here an’ keep a-talkin’ all de -whole time,” said Toddie, “when it makes poor old Uncle Harry hurt so. -G’way.” - -Mrs. Burton’s lord and master was not in too much pain to shake with -silent laughter at this rebuke, and the lady herself was too startled -to devise an appropriate retort, so the boys amused themselves by a -general exploration of the chamber, not omitting the pockets of their -uncle’s clothing. This work completed to the full extent of their -ability, they demanded breakfast. - -“Breakfast won’t be ready until eight o’clock,” said Mrs. Burton, “and -it is now only six. If you little boys don’t wish to feel dreadfully -hungry you had better go back to bed and lie as quiet as possible.” - -“Is dat de way not to be hungry?” asked Toddie, with the wide-open -eyes, which always accompany the receptive mind. - -“Certainly,” said Mrs. Burton. “If you run about, you agitate your -stomachs, and that makes them restless, so you feel hungry.” - -“Gwacious!” said Toddie. “What lots of fings little boys has got to -lyne, hazn’t dey? Come on, Budgie; let’s go put our tummuks to bed, -an’keep ’em from gettin’ ajjerytated.” - -“All right,” said Budge. “But say, Aunt Alice, don’t you s’pose our -stomachs would be sleepier an’ not so restless if there was some -crackers or bread an’ butter in ’em?” - -“There’s no one down-stairs to get you any,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Oh,” said Budge, “we can find ’em. We know where everything is in the -pantries and storeroom.” - -“I wish I were so clever,” sighed Mrs. Burton. “Go along; get what you -like, but don’t come back to this room again. And don’t let me find -anything in disorder down-stairs, or I shall never trust you in my -kitchen again.” - -Away flew the children, but their disappearance only made room for a -new torment, for Mr. Burton stopped in the middle of the operation of -shaving himself, and remarked: - -“I’ve been longing for Sunday to come, for your sake, my dear. The -boys, as you have frequently observed, have very strange notions about -good things; but they are also, by nature, quite spiritually minded. -You are not only this latter, but you are free from strange doctrines -and the traditions of men. The mystical influences of the day will make -themselves felt upon those innocent little hearts, and you will have an -opportunity to correct wrong teachings and instill new sentiments and -truths.” - -Mr. Burton’s voice had grown a bit shaky as he reached the close -of this neat little speech, so that his wife scrutinized his face -closely to see if there might not be a laugh somewhere about it. A -friendly coating of lather protected one cheek, however, and the -troublesome tooth had distorted the shape of the other, so Mrs. -Burton was compelled to accept the mingled ascription of praise and -responsibility, which she did with a sinking heart. - -“I’ll take care of them while you’re at church, my dear,” said Mr. -Burton. “They’re always saintly with sick people.” - -Mrs. Burton breathed a sigh of relief. She determined that she would -extemporize a special “Children’s Service” immediately after breakfast, -and impress her nephews as fully as possible with the spirit of the -day; then if her husband would but continue the good work thus begun, -it would be impossible for the boys to fall from grace in the few hours -which remained between dinner time and darkness. Full of her project, -and forgetting that she had allowed her chambermaid to go to early -service, and promised herself to see that the children were dressed -for breakfast, Mrs. Burton, at the breakfast-table, noticed that her -nephews did not respond with their usual alacrity to the call of the -bell. Recalling her forgotten duty, she hurried to the boys’s chamber, -and found them already enjoying a repast which was remarkable for -variety. On a small table, drawn to the side of the bed, was a pie, a -bowl of pickles, a dish of honey in the comb, and a small package of -cinnamon bark; with spoons, knives and forks and fingers the boys were -helping themselves to these delicacies. Seeing his aunt, Toddie looked -rather guilty, but Budge displayed the smile of the fully justified, -and remarked: - -“Now, you know what kind of meals little boys like, Aunt Alice. I hope -you won’t forget it while we’re here.” - -“What do you mean!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, sternly, “by bringing such -things up-stairs?” - -“Why,” said Budge, “you told us to get what we wanted, an’ we supposed -you told the troof.” - -“An’ I ain’t azh hungry azh I wazh,” said Toddie, “but my tummuk feels -as if it growed big and got little again, every minute or two, an’ it -hurts. I wishes we could put tummuks away when we get done usin’ ’em, -like we do hats an’ over-shoes.” - -To sweep the remains of the unique morning lunch into a heap and away -from her nephews, was a work which occupied but a second or two of Mrs. -Burton’s time; this done, two little boys found themselves robed more -rapidly than they had ever before been. Arrived at the breakfast-table, -they eyed with withering contempt an irreproachable cutlet, some crisp -brown potatoes of waferlike thinness, and a heap of rolls almost as -light as snowflakes. - -“We don’t want none of this kind of breakfast,” said Budge. - -“Of coursh we don’t,” said Toddie, “when we’s so awful full of uvver -fings. I don’t know where I’zhe goin’ to put my dinner when it comes -time to eat it.” - -“Don’t fret about that, Tod,” said Budge. “Don’t you know papa says -that the Bible says somethin’ that means ‘don’t worry till you have -to’?” - -Mrs. Burton raised her eyebrows with horror not unmixed with inquiry, -and her husband hastened to give Budge’s sentiment its proper biblical -wording, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Mrs. Burton’ -wonder was allayed by the explanation, although her horror was not, and -she made haste to say: - -“Boys, we will have a little Sunday-school, all by ourselves, in the -parlor immediately after breakfast.” - -“Hooray!” shouted Budge. “An’ will you give us a ticket an’ pass -around a box for pennies, just like they do in big Sunday-schools?” - -“I--suppose so,” said Mrs. Burton, who had not previously thought of -these special attractions of the successful Sunday-school. - -“Let’s go right in, Tod,” said Budge, “’cause the dog’s in there. I saw -him as I came down, and I shut all the doors so he couldn’t get out. We -can have some fun with him ’fore Sunday-school begins.” - -Both boys started for the parlor-door, and, guided by that marvellous -instinct with which Providence arms the few against the many, and the -weak against the strong, the dog Terry, also approached the door from -the inside. As the door opened there was heard a convulsive howl, and -a general tumbling of small boys, while at almost the same instant -Terry flew into the dining-room and hid himself in the folds of his -mistress’s morning robe. Two or three minutes later Budge entered the -dining-room with a very rueful countenance, and remarked: - -“I guess we need that Sunday-school pretty quick, Aunt Alice. The dog -don’t want to play with us, and we ought to be comforted some way.” - -“They’re grown people, all over again,” remarked Mr. Burton, with a -laugh. - -“What do you mean?” demanded Mrs. Burton. - -“Only this; when their own devices fail, they’re in a hurry for the -consolations of religion. May I visit the Sunday-school?” - -“I suppose I can’t keep you away,” sighed Mrs. Burton, leading the way -to the parlor. “Boys,” said she, greeting her nephews, “first we’ll -sing a little hymn. What shall it be?” - -“Ole Uncle Ned,” said Toddie. - -“Oh, that’s not a Sunday song.” - -“I fink tizh,” said Toddie, “’cause it sayzh, free or four timezh, -‘He’s gone where de good niggers go,’s an’ dat’s hebben, you know. So -it’s a Sunday song.” - -“I think ‘Glory, glory, hallelujah!’s is nicer,” said Budge, “an’ I -know it’s a Sunday song, ’cause I’ve heard it in church.” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie; and he started the old air himself, with the -words, “There liezh de whiskey-bottle, empty on de sheff,” but was -suddenly brought to order by a shake from his aunt, while his uncle -danced about the front parlor in an ecstasy not directly traceable to -toothache. - -“That’s not a Sunday song, either, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton. “The -words are real rowdyish. Where did you learn them?” - -“Round the corner from our housh,” said Toddie; “an’ you can shing you -ole shongs yourseff, if you don’t like mine.” - -Mrs. Burton went to the piano, rambled among chords for a few seconds, -and finally recalled a Sunday-school air in which Toddie joined as -angelically as if his own musical taste had never been impugned. - -“Now, I guess we’d better take up the collection before any little -boys lose their pennies,” said Budge, hurrying to the dining-room, and -returning with a strawberry-box which seemed to have been specially -provided for the occasion; this he passed gravely before Toddie, and -Toddie held his hand over it as carefully as if he were depositing -hundreds, and then Toddie took the box and passed it before Budge, who -made the same dumb show, after which Budge retook the box, shook it, -listened, remarked, “It don’t rattle--I guess it’s all paper-money -to-day,” placed it upon the mantel, reseated himself, and remarked: - -“Now bring on your lesson.” - -[Illustration: BUDGE TAKING UP THE COLLECTION] - -Mrs. Burton opened her Bible with a sense of helplessness. With the -instinct of a person given to thoroughness, she opened at the beginning -of the book, but she speedily closed it again. Turning the leaves -rapidly; passing, for conscience’s sake, the record of many a battle, -the details of which would have delighted the boys, and hurrying past -the prophecies as records not for the minds of children, she at last -reached the New Testament and the ever-new story of the only boy who -ever was all that his parents and relatives could wish him. - -“The lesson will be about Jesus,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Little-boy Jesus or big-man Jesus?” asked Toddie. - -“A--a--both,” replied the teacher, in confusion. - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “G’won.” - -“There was once a time when all the world was in trouble, without -knowing exactly why,” said Mrs. Burton; “but the Lord understood it, -for He understands everything.” - -“Does He know how it feels to be a little boy,” asked Toddie, “an’ be -sent to bed when He don’t want to go?” - -“And He determined to comfort the world, as He always does when the -world finds out it can’t comfort itself,” continued Mrs. Burton, -ignoring her nephew’s questions. - -“But wasn’t dere lotsh of little boyzh den?” asked Toddie, “an’ -didn’t they need to be comforted as well as big folks?” - -“I suppose so. But He knew that if He comforted grown people, they -would make the children happy.” - -“I wiss He’d comfort you an’ Uncle Harry ev’ry mornin’, den,” said -Toddie. “G’won.” - -“So He sent His own Son--His only Son--down to the world to be a dear -little baby. And while smart people everywhere were wondering what -would or could happen to quiet the restless heart of people----” - -“Izh restless hearts like restless tummuks?” interrupted Toddie. “Kind -o’ pumpy an’ wabbley?” - -“I suppose so.” - -“Poor folks!” said Toddie, clasping his hands over his waistband. -“I’zhe sorry for ’em.” - -“While smart folks were trying to think out what should be done,” -continued Mrs. Burton, “some shepherds, who used to sit around at night -under the moon and stars, and wonder about things which they could not -understand, saw a wonderfully bright star in the sky.” - -“Was it one of the twinkle-twinkle kind, or one of the stand-still -kind?” asked Toddie. - -“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Burton, after a moment’s reflection. “Why do -you ask?” - -“’Cauzh,” said Toddie, “I know what ’twazh dere for, an’ it ought to -have twinkled, ’cauzh twinkley stars bob open an’ shut dat way ’cauzh -dey’re laughin’ an’ can’t keep still, an’ I know I’d have laughed -if I’d been a star an’ was goin’ to make a lot of folks awful happy. -G’won.” - -“Then,” said Mrs. Burton, looking alternately and frequently at the two -accounts of the Advent, “they suddenly saw an angel, and the shepherds -were afraid.” - -“Should fink dey would be!” said Toddie. “Everybody gets afraid when -dey see good people around. I ’pec dey thought de angel would say -‘Don’t!’ in about a minute.” - -“But the angel told them not to be afraid,” said Mrs. Burton, “for he -had come to bring good news. There was to be a baby born at Bethlehem, -and He would make everybody happy.” - -“Wouldn’t it be nice if that angel would come an’ do it all over -again?” Budge asked. “Only he ought to pick out little boys instead of -sheep fellows. I wouldn’t be afraid of an angel.” - -“Neiver would I,” said Toddie. “I’d dzust go round behind him an’ see -how his wings was fastened on.” - -“Then a great many other angels came,” said Mrs. Burton, “and they -all sang together. The shepherds didn’t know what to make of it, but -after the singing was over they all started for Bethlehem to see that -wonderful baby.” - -“Just like the other day we went to see the sister-baby!” - -“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton; “but instead of finding him in a pleasant home -and a nice room, with careful friends and nurses around him, he was in -a manger out in a stable.” - -“That was ’cause he was so smart that he could do just what he wanted -to, an’ be just where he liked,” said Budge, “an’ he was a little -boy, an’ little boys always like stables better than houses. I wish I -could live in a stable always an’ for ever!” - -“So do I,” said Toddie, “an’ sleep in mangers, ’cauzh den de horses -would kick anybody dat made me put on clean clozhezh when I didn’t want -to. Dey gaveded him presentsh, didn’t they?” - -“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton; “gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” - -“Why didn’t they give him rattles and squealey-balls, like folks did -budder Phillie when he was a baby,” asked Toddie. - -“Because, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, glad of an opportunity to get the -sentiment of the story into her own hands, from which it had departed -very early in the course of the lesson--“because he was no common baby, -like other children.” - -“Did he play around, like uvver little boysh?” continued Toddie. - -“I--I--suppose so,” said Mrs. Burton, fearing lest in trying to instill -reverence into her nephews, she herself might prove irreverent. - -“Did somebody say ‘Don’t’ at him every time he did anyfing?” continued -Toddie. - -“N--n--n--o! I imagine not,” said Mrs. Burton, “because he was always -good.” - -“That don’t make no diffwelence,” said Toddie. “De better a little boy -triesh to be, de more folks says ‘Don’t’ to him. So I guesh nobody had -any time to say anyfing elsh at all to Jesus.” - -“What did he do next?” asked Budge, as deeply interested as if he had -not heard the same story many times before. - -“He grew strong in body and spirit,” said Mrs. Burton, “and everybody -loved him; but before he had time to do all that, an angel came and -frightened his papa in a dream, and told him that the king of that -country would kill little Jesus if he could find him. So Joseph and -Mary, the mamma of the baby, got up in the middle of the night and -started off to Egypt.” - -“What did they do when they got there?” Budge asked. - -“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Burton. “I suppose the papa worked hard for -money to buy good food and comfortable resting-places for his wife and -the baby; and I suppose the mamma walked about the fields, and picked -pretty flowers for her baby to play with; and I suppose the baby cooed -when his mamma gave them to him, and laughed and danced and played, and -then got tired, and came and hid his little face in his mamma’s lap, -and was taken into her arms and held ever so tight, and fell asleep, -and that his mother looked into his face as if she would look through -it, while she tried to find out what her baby would be and do when he -grew up, and whether he would be taken away from her, while it seemed -as if she couldn’t live at all without having him very closely pressed -to her breast and----” - -Mrs. Burton’s voice grew a little shaky and soon failed her entirely. -Budge came in front of her, scrutinized her intently but with great -sympathy also, rested his elbows on her knees, dropped his face into -his own hands, looked up into her face, and said: - -“Why, Aunt Alice, she was just like my mamma, wasn’t she? An’ I think -you are just like both of ’em!” - -Mrs. Burton took Budge into her arms, covered his face with kisses, and -totally destroyed another chance of explaining the difference between -the earthly and the heavenly to her pupils, while Toddie eyed the -couple with evident disfavor, and said: - -“I fink ’twould be nicer if you’d see if dinner was bein’ got ready, -instead of stoppin’ tellin’ stories an’ huggin’ Budgie. My tummuk’ -all gotted little again.” - -Mrs. Burton came back to the world of to-day from that of history, -though not without a sigh, while the dog Terry, who had divined -the peaceful nature of the occasion so far as to feel justified in -reclining beneath his mistress’ chair, now contracted himself into the -smallest possible space, slunk out of the doorway, and took a lively -quickstep in the direction of the shrubbery. Toddie had seen him, -however, and told Budge, and both boys were soon in pursuit, noticing -which, Terry speedily betook himself to that distant retirement which -the dog who has experience in small boys knows well how to discover and -maintain. - -As the morning wore on the boys grew restless, fought, drummed on the -piano, snarled when that instrument was closed, meddled with everything -that was within reach, and finally grew so troublesome that their aunt -soon felt that to lose was cheaper than to save, so she left the house -to the children, and sought the side of the lounge upon which her -afflicted husband reclined. The divining sense of childhood soon found -her out, however, and Budge remarked: - -“Aunt Alice, if you’re going to church, seems to me it’s time you was -getting ready.” - -“I can’t go to church, Budge,” sighed Mrs. Burton. “If I do, you boys -will only turn the whole house upside down, and drive your poor uncle -nearly crazy.” - -“No, we won’t,” said Budge. “You don’t know what nice nurses we can be -to sick people. Papa says nobody can even imagine how well we can take -care of anybody until they see us do it. If you don’t believe it, just -leave us with Uncle Harry, an’ stay home from church an’ peek through -the keyhole.” - -“Go on, dear,” said Mr. Burton. “If you want to go to church, don’t -be afraid to leave me. I think you should go, after your experience -of this morning. I shouldn’t think your mind could be at peace until -you had joined your voice with that of the great congregation, and -acknowledged yourself to be a miserable sinner.” - -[Illustration: TERRY] - -Mrs. Burton winced, but nevertheless retired, and soon appeared dressed -for church, kissed her husband and her nephews, gave many last -instructions, and departed. Budge followed her with his eye until she -had stepped from the piazza, and then remarked, with a sigh of relief: - -“Now I guess we’ll have what papa calls a good, old-fashioned time, for -we’ve got rid of her.” - -“Budge!” exclaimed Mr. Burton, sternly, and springing to his feet, “do -you know who you are talking about? Don’t you know that your Aunt Alice -has saved you from many a scolding, done you many a favor, and been -your best friend?” - -“Oh, yes,” said Budge, with at least a dozen inflections on each word, -“but ev’ry day friends an’ Sunday friends are kind o’ different; don’t -you think so? She can’t make whistles, or catch bullfrogs, or carry -both of us up the mountain on her shoulders, or sing ‘Roll, Jordan.’” - -“And do you expect me to do all these things to-day?” - -“N--n--no, unless you should get well, an’ feel just like it; but we’d -like to be with somebody who could do ’em if he wanted to. We like -ladies that’s all ladies, but then we like men that’s all men, too. -Aunt Alice is a good deal like an angel, I think, and you--well, you -ain’t. An’ we don’t want to be with angels all the time until we’re -angels ourselves.” - -Mr. Burton turned over suddenly and contemplated the back of the -lounge, while Budge continued: - -“We don’t want you to get to be an angel, so what I want to know is, -how to make you well. Don’t you think if I borrowed papa’ horse and -carriage an’ took you ridin’ you’d feel better? I know he’d lend ’em -to me if I told him you were goin’ to drive.” - -“And if you said you would go with me to take care of me?” suggested -Mr. Burton. - -“Y--e--es,” said Budge, as hesitatingly as if such an idea had never -occurred to him. “An’ don’t you think that up to the top of Hawksnest -Rock an’ out to Passaic Falls would be the nicest places for a sick -man to go? When you got tired of ridin’ you could stop the carriage -an’ cut us a cane, or make us whistles, or even send us in swimming in -a brook somewhere if you got tired of us.” - -“H’m!” grunted Mr. Burton. - -“An’ you might take fings to eat wif you,” suggested Toddie, “an’ -when you got real tired and felt bad you might stop an’ have a little -picnic. I fink dat would be dzust de fing for a man wif de toofache. -And we could help you, lotsh.” - -“I’ll see how I feel after dinner,” said Mr. Burton. “But what are you -going to do for me between now and then, to make me feel better?” - -“We’ll tell you storiezh,” said Toddie. “Dem’s what sick folks alwayzh -likesh.” - -“Very well,” said Mr. Burton. “Begin right away.” - -“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “Do you wantsh a sad story or a d’zolly one?” - -“Anything. Men with the toothache can stand nearly anything. Don’t draw -on your imagination too hard.” - -“Don’t never draw on no madzinasuns,” said Toddie; “I only draws on -slatesh.” - -“Never mind. Give us the story.” - -“Well,” said Toddie, seating himself in a little rocking-chair, and -fixing his eyes on the ceiling, “guesh I’ll tell about AbrahammynIsaac. -Onesh de Lord told a man named Abraham to go up the mountain an’ chop -his little boy’s froat open an’ burn him up on a naltar. So Abraham -started to go do it. An’ he made his little boy Isaac, dat he was -going to chop and burn up, carry de kindlin’ wood he was goin’ to set -him a-fire wif. An’ I want to know if you fink dat wazh very nysh of -him?” - -“Well, no.” - -“Tell you what,” said Budge, “you don’t ever catch me carryin’ sticks -up the mountain, even if my papa wants me to.” - -“When they got up dere,” said Toddie, “Abraham made a naltar an’ put -little Ikey on it, an’ took a knife an’ was goin’ to chop his froat -open, when a andzel came out of hebben, an’ said: ‘Stop a-doin’ -dat!’s So Abraham stopped, an’ Ikey skooted. An’ Abraham saw a sheep -caught in de bushes, an’ he caught him an’ killed him. He wasn’ -goin’ to climb way up a mountain to kill somebody an’ not have his -knife bluggy a bit. An’ he burned de sheep up. An’ den he went home -again.” - -“I’ll bet you Isaac’s mamma never knew what his papa wanted to do with -him,” said Budge, “or she’d never let her little boy go away in the -mornin’. Do you want to bet?” - -“N--no, not on Sunday,” said Mr. Burton. “Now, suppose you little boys -go out of doors and play for a while, while uncle tries to get a nap.” - -The boys accepted the suggestion and disappeared. Half an hour later, -as Mrs. Burton was walking home from church under escort of old -General Porcupine, and enduring with saintly fortitude the general’s -compliments upon her management of the children, there came screams of -fear and anguish from the general’s own grounds, which the couple were -passing. - -“Who can that be?” exclaimed the general, his short hairs bristling -like the quills of his titular godfather. “We have no children.” - -“I think I know the voices,” gasped Mrs. Burton, turning pale. - -“Bless my soul!” exclaimed the general, with an accent which showed -that he was wishing the reverse of blessings upon souls less needy than -his own. “You don’t mean----” - -“Oh, I do!” said Mrs. Burton, wringing her hands. “Please hurry!” - -The general puffed and snorted up his gravel walk and toward the -shrubbery, behind which was a fishpond from which direction the sound -came. Mrs. Burton followed in time to see her nephew Budge help his -brother out of the pond while the general tugged at a large crawfish -which had fastened its claw upon Toddies finger. The fish was game, -but, with a mighty pull from the general, and a fiendish shriek from -Toddie, the fish’s claw and body parted company, and the general, still -holding the latter tightly, staggered backward and himself fell into -the pond. - -[Illustration: THE GENERAL FELL INTO THE POND] - -“Ow--ow--ow!” howled Toddie, clasping the skirt of his aunt’s mauve -silk in a ruinous embrace, while the general floundered and snorted -like a whale in dying agonies and Budge laughed as merrily as if the -whole scene had been provided especially for his entertainment. Mrs. -Burton hurried her nephews away, forgetting, in her mortification, to -thank the general for his service, and placing a hand over Toddie’s -mouth. - -“It hurts!” mumbled Toddie. - -“What did you touch the fish at all for?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“It was a little baby-lobster,” sobbed Toddie, “an’ I loves little -babies--all kinds of ’em--an’ I wanted to pet him. An’ den I wanted -to grop him.” - -“Why didn’t you do it?” demanded the lady. - -“’Cauzh he wouldn’t grop,” said Toddie. “He isn’t all gropped yet.” - -True enough, the claw of the fish still hung at Toddies finger, and -Mrs. Burton spoiled a pair of four-button kids in detaching it, while -Budge continued to laugh. At length, however, mirth gave place to -brotherly love, and Budge tenderly remarked: - -“Toddie dear, don’t you love Bother Budgie?” - -“Yesh,” sobbed Toddie. - -“Then you ought to be happy,” said Budge, “for you’ve made him awful -happy. If the fish hadn’t caught you, the general couldn’t have pulled -him off, an’ then he wouldn’t have tumbled into the pond, an’ oh, -my--didn’t he splash bully!” - -“Then you’s got to be bited wif a fiss yourself,” said Toddie, “an’ -make him tumble in again, for me to laugh ’bout.” - -“You’re two naughty boys,” said Mrs. Burton. “Is this the way you take -care of your sick uncle?” - -“We did take care of him!” exclaimed Toddie. “Told him a lovaly Bible -story, an’ you didn’t, an’ he wouldn’t have had not no Sunday at all -if I hadn’t done it. An’ we’ goin’ to take him widin’ dis afternoon.” - -Mrs. Burton hurried home, but it seemed to her that she had never met -so many inquiring acquaintances during so short a walk. Arrived at -last, she ordered her nephews to their room, and flung herself in tears -beside her husband, murmuring: - -“Harry!” - -And Mr. Burton, having viewed the ruined dress with the eye of -experience, uttered the single word: - -“Boys!” - -“What am I to do with them?” asked the unhappy woman. - -Mr. Burton was an affectionate husband. He adored womankind, and -sincerely bemoaned its special grievances; but he did not resist the -temptation to recall his wife’s announcement of five days before, so he -whispered: - -“Train them.” - -“I----” - -Mrs. Burton’s humiliation by her own lips was postponed by a heavy -footfall, which, by turning her face, she discovered was that of her -brother-in-law, Tom Lawrence, who remarked: - -“Tender confidences, eh? There’s nothing like them, if you want to be -happy. But Helen’s pretty well to-day, and dying to have her boys with -her, and I’m even worse with a similar longing. You can’t spare them, -I suppose?” - -The peculiar way in which Tom Lawrence’ eyes danced as he awaited a -reply would, at any other time, have aroused all the defiance in Alice -Burton’s nature; but now, looking at the front of her beautiful dress, -she only said: - -“Why--I suppose--we might spare them for an hour or two.” - -“You poor, dear Spartan,” said Tom, with genuine sympathy, “You shall -be at peace until their bedtime.” - -And Mrs. Burton found occasion to rearrange the bandage on her -husband’s face so as to whisper in his ear: - -“Thank heaven!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - -The boys returned to the Burtons fast asleep, Budge in his father’s -arms, and Toddie’s head pillowed on the shoulder of faithful Mike. -No sound was heard from either of them until the next morning, when -finding that they slept later than usual, their aunt went to their -chamber to arouse them. She found Budge sitting up in bed rubbing his -eyes with one hand, while with the other he shook his brother, and -elicited some ugly grunts of remonstrance. - -“Tod!” exclaimed Budge; “Tod! Wake up! We ain’t where we was!” - -“Don’t care if we ain’t,” drawled Toddie. “I’zhe in--a--nicer playsh. -I’zhe in--big candy-shop.” - -“No, you ain’t,” said Budge, trying to pick his brother’s eyes open. -“You’re at Aunt Alice’, and when you went to sleep you was at mamma’s -house.” - -“Pw--w--w--!” cried Toddie, arising slowly; “you’s a hateful bad boy, -Budgie. I was a-dreamin’ I was in a candystore, an’ gotted all my -pockets full an’ bof hands full, too, an’ now you’s woketed me up -an’ my hands is all empty, an’ I hazn’t got any pocket-clozhezh on me -at all.” - -“Well, next time you have a dream I won’t wake you at all, even if you -have nightmares an’ dream awful things. Say, Aunt Alice, how do folks -dream, I wonder? What makes everythin’ go away an’ be somethin’ -else?” - -“It is the result of indistinct impressions upon a semi-dormant brain,” -said Mrs. Burton. - -“Oh!” - -Mrs. Burton thought she detected a note of sarcasm in her nephew’s -exclamation, but he was so young and he seemed so meek of countenance -that she abandoned the idea. Besides, her younger nephew had been -saying “Aunt Alish--Aunt Alish--Aunt Alish--Aunt Alish--” as rapidly as -he could with an increasing volume of voice. Mrs. Burton found time in -which to say: - -“What?” - -“Did you say pwessin’ on bwains made us dweam fings, Aunt Alish?” - -“Ye--es,” Mrs. Burton replied. “That is the----” - -“Well, then,” interrupted Toddie. “Jzust you sit down on my head an’ -make dat candy-shop come back again, won’t you?” - -“Say, Aunt Alice,” said Budge, “do you know that lots of times I don’t -know any more than I knew before.” - -“I don’t understand you, Budge.” - -“Why, when folks tell me things--I mean, I ask them how things are, -an’ they tell me, an’ then I don’t know any better than I did before. -Is that the way it is with grown folks?” - -[Illustration: “DREAMIN’ I WAS IN A CANDY-STORE”] - -Mrs. Burton reflected for a moment and recalled many experiences very -much like that of Budge--experiences, too, in which she had forced the -same impassive face that Budge wore, as she pretended to comprehend -that which had been imperfectly explained. She remembered, too, how -depressing had been the lack of understanding, and how strong was the -sense of injury at being required to act as if her comprehension had -been perfectly reached. Whether the topics had been the simple affairs -of childhood, or the social, æsthetic and religious instructions of -adult age, Mrs. Burton, like every one else, had been told more than -she understood, and misunderstood many things she had been told, and -blamed her friends and the world for her blunders and for lack of -appreciation of the intentions to which proper and fostering training -had never been applied. Was it possible that she was repeating with her -nephews the blunders which others had committed while attempting to -shape her own mind? - -The thought threw Mrs. Burton into the profoundest depths of reverie, -from which she was aroused by Budge, who asked: - -“Aunt Alice, do you see the Lord?” - -“No, Budge!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, with a start. “Why do you ask?” - -“Why,” said Budge, “you was lookin’ so hard through the window, an’ -right toward where you couldn’t see anythin’ but sky; an’ your eyes -had such an ever-so-far look in them that I thought you must be lookin’ -straight at the Lord.” - -“If you sees Him,” said Toddie, “I wiss you’d ask him to send that -dream back again to-night; to push on my bwains an’ make it come -back, and then let me stay asleep until I eat up all de candy I gotted -into my pockets an’ hands.” - -The appearance of the chambermaid, who came to dress the boys for -breakfast, put an end to the conversation, but Mrs. Burton determined -that it should be renewed at the earliest opportunity, or, rather, that -her discoveries of her own shortcomings as a teacher of children should -lead to an early and practical reformation. - -The fit of mental abstraction into which this resolution threw her was -the cause of a silence which puzzled her husband considerably, for -he could plainly see by her face that no affair merely matured was -at the bottom of her reticence, and that what in men would be called -temper was equally absent from her heart. In fact, the result upon Mrs. -Burton’s face and actions was so beneficial that the lady’s husband -determined to plead toothache as an excuse to remain at home for a day -and look at her. - -The mere suggestion, however, elicited from Mrs. Burton the mention of -so many absolute necessities which could be procured only in the city -and by her husband, that he departed by a train even earlier than the -one upon which he usually travelled, and with sensations very like -those of a man who has been forcibly ejected from a residence. - -Then Mrs. Burton led her nephews into the sitting-room, seated herself, -placed an arm tightly about each little boy, and said: “Children, is -there anything that you would very much like to know?” - -“Yesh,” answered Toddie, promptly. “I’d like to know what we’s going to -have for dinner to-day?” - -“And I,” said Budge, “would like to know when we’re all goin’ for a -ride again.” - -“I don’t mean silly things of that sort,” said Mrs. Burton, “but----” - -“Ain’t silly fings!” said Toddie. “Deysh what makesh ush happy.” - -Mrs. Burton made a mental note of the justice of the rebuke, and of its -connection with the subject of which her heart was already full; but -she was still Alice Mayton Burton, a lady whose perceptions could not -easily prevent her from following the paths which she had already laid -out for herself, so she replied: - -“I know they are; but I want to teach you whatever you want to learn -about matters of more importance.” - -“Do you mean that you want to play school?” asked Budge. “Papa don’t -think school is healthy for children in warm weather, an’ neither do -we.” - -“No, I don’t want to play school, but I want to explain to you some of -the things which you say you don’t understand, though people tell you -all about them. It makes Aunt Alice very unhappy to think that her dear -little nephews are troubled about understanding things when they want -so much to do so. Aunt Alice was once a little bit of a girl, and had -just the same sort of trouble, and she remembers how uncomfortable it -made her.” - -“Oh!” said Budge, changing his position until he could look into his -aunt’s eyes. “Did you ever have to wonder how big moons got to be -little again, an’ then have big folks tell you they chopped up the old -moons an’ made stars of them, when you knew the story must be an awful -whopper?” - -“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“An’ didn’t you ever wunner what dinner was goin’ to be made of, an’ -den have big folks just say ‘never mind’?” asked Toddie. - -“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton, giving Toddie a light squeeze. “I’ve been -through that, too.” - -“Why!” said Budge, “you was awful little once, wasn’t you? Well, did -you ever have to wonder where God stood when he made the world out of -nothing?” - -“An’ did you ever have to fink how the sweet outsides got made onto -date-stones an’ peach-pits?” asked Toddie. - -“Oh, yes.” - -“Then tell us all about ’em.” - -“You asked me about dreams this morning, dear,” said Mrs. Burton, -addressing Budge, “and----” - -“I know I did,” said Budge; “but I’d rather know about dates an’ -peaches now. I can’t dream any more till I go to bed; but I can buy -dates inside of a quarter of an hour, if you’ll give me pennies. Oh, -say--I’ll tell you what--you send me to buy some, and then you can -explain about ’em easier. It’ so much nicer to see how things are than -to have to think about ’em.” - -“I can’t spare you now, dear, to go after dates. I may not have time to -talk to you when you get back.” - -“Oh, we’d manage not to bother you. I think we could find out all -about ’em ourselves, if we had enough of ’em to do it with.” - -“Very well,” said Mrs. Burton, compromising reluctantly. “I’ll tell you -about something else at present; then I will give you some money to -purchase dates, and you may study them for yourselves.” - -[Illustration: “WONDER HOW BIG MOONS GOT TO BE LITTLE AGAIN”] - -“All right. Now tell us what makes your dog Terry always run away -whenever we want him?” - -“Because you tease him so much, whenever you catch him that you -have made him hate you,” said Mrs. Burton, delighted at the double -opportunity to speak distinctly and impart a lesson in humanity. - -“Now, you’s gettin’ ready to say ‘Don’t,’” Toddie complained. “Can’t -little boysh lyne noffin’ dat hazn’t got any mean old ‘Don’t’ in it?” - -“I hope so, poor little fellow,” said Mrs. Burton, repenting at once of -her success. - -“What would you like to know?” - -Toddie opened his mouth and eyes, hung his head to one side, meditated -for two or three minutes, and said: - -“I--I--I--I--I wantsh to know whatsh de reason dat when a little boy -hazh been eatin’ lotsh of buttananoes he can’t eat any more, when he’s -been findin’ out all the whole time how awful good dey is?” - -“Because his little stomach is full, and when one’s stomach is full it -knows enough to stop wanting anything.” - -“Then tummuks is gooses. I wiss I was my tummuk dzust once; I’d show it -how never to get tired of buttananoes.” - -“What I want to know,” said Budge, “is how we have dreams, ’cause I -don’t know any more about it than I did before, after what you told me -this morning.” - -“It’s a hard thing to explain, dear,” said Mrs. Burton, as she -endeavored to frame a simple explanation. “We think with our brain, -and when we sleep our brain sleeps too, though sometimes it isn’t as -sleepy as the rest of our body; and when it is a little wakeful it -thinks the least bit, but it can’t think straight, so each thought gets -mixed up with part of some other thought.” - -“That’s the reason I dreamed last night that a cow was sittin’ in your -rockin’-chair readin’ an atlas,” said Budge. “But what made me think -about cows an rockin-chairs an’ atlases at all?” - -[Illustration: “A COW READIN’s AN ATLAS”] - -“That’s one of the things which we can’t explain about dreams,” said -Mrs. Burton. “We seem to remember something that we have seen at some -other time, and our memories jumble against each other, when two or -three come at a time.” - -“Then,” said Toddie, “some night when I’ze asleep I’m goin’ to fink -about buttananoes an’ red-herrin’ an’ ice-cream an’ourgrass an’ -hard-boiled eggs an’ candy an’ fried hominy, an’ won’t I hazh a -lovaly little tea-party in bed, if all my finks djumbles togevver? An’ -I won’t djeam about any uvver little boy wif me at all.” - -“When I dream about dear little dead brother Phillie,” said Budge, -“don’t I do anythin’ but just remember him? Don’t he come down from -heaven and see me in my bed?” - -“I imagine not, dear,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Then what makes him look so white and sunny, an’ smile so sweet, an’ -flap his dear little white wings close to my face so I can touch ’em?” - -“I suppose it is because--because you have thought of him looking that -way,” said Mrs. Burton, drawing Budge closer to her side to hide the -wistfulness of his face from her eyes. “You’ve seen pictures of angels -all in white, with graceful wings, and you’ve thought of little brother -Phil looking that way.” - -“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Budge, burying his face in his aunt’s robe and -bursting into tears. “I wish I hadn’t tried to find out about dreamin’! -I don’t ever want to learn about anything else. If dear little angel -Phillie is only a piece of a think in my brain when I’m asleep, then -there isn’t nothin’ that’s anythin’. I always thought it was funny -that he began to go away as soon as I began to wake up.” - -“Cows don’t go ’way when I wakes up from dreamin’ about ’em,” said -Toddie. “I ’members ’em all day, an’ sees ’em whenever I don’t want -to.” - -Mrs. Burton could not repress a smile, while Budge raised his head, and -said: - -“Well, I suppose it’s no good to be unhappy. We’d better have fun than -think about things that’s awful sad. Can’t you think of some new kind -of a play for us?” - -“I’m afraid I can’t, at this minute,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Suppose you play store,” said Budge, “an’ keep lots of nice things, -like cakes an’ candies, an’ let us buy ’em of you for pins. Oh, yes! -an’ you give us the pins to buy ’em with. - -“An’ do it ’fore it getsh dinner-time,” said Toddie, “so de fings you -sell us can get out of the way in time, so we can get empty to get -fullded up at dinner.” - -“I can’t do that,” said Mrs. Burton, “because it would give you an -excuse to eat between meals.” - -“Then tell us stories,” Budge suggested; “no, make a menagerie for us. -Oh, no!--I’ll tell you what, make believe it was our house, an’ you -was comin’ to visit us, an’ we’ll bring you up cake an’ coffee to -rest yourself with.” - -“I’m afraid I smell some little mice!” said Mrs. Burton. - -“In the mouse-twap?” inquired Toddie. “Oh! get ’em for ush to play wif!” - -“Tell you what,” said Budge. “You can tell us that funny story about -the man that had dogs for doctors.” - -“Dogs for doctors?” echoed Mrs. Burton. - -“Yes,” said Budge; “don’t you know? He’s in the Bible book.” - -“He may be,” said Mrs. Burton, rapidly passing in review such biblical -dogs as she could remember, “but I don’t know where.” - -“Why, don’t you know?” continued Budge. “He was that man that was so -poor that he had to eat crumbs, an’ papa don’t think he had any syrup -with ’em, either, like we do when the cook gives us the crumbs out of -the bread-box.” - -“Is it possible you mean Lazarus?” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. - -“Yesh,” said Toddie, “dat was him. ’Twasn’t de Lazharus that began to -live again after he was buried, though. He didn’t have no dogs.” - -“The poor man you mean,” said Mrs. Burton, “was very sick and very -poor, so that he had to be fed with the scraps that a rich man named -Dives left at his own table. But the Lord saw him and knew what -troubles he was having, and determined that the poor man should be -happy after he died, to make up for the trouble he had when he was -alive. So when poor Lazarus died the Lord took him right into heaven.” - -“Nobody has to eat table-scraps there, do they?” said Budge. “But say, -Aunt Alice, what do they do in heaven with things that’ left at the -table? Isn’t it wicked to throw them away up there?” - -“Should fink they’d cut a hole in the floor of hebben an’ grop de -scraps down froo, for poor people,” said Toddie. “When I gets to be an -andzel, an’ gets done my dinners, I’m goin’ to get up on the wall -an’ froe the rest over down into the world. Only I must be careful not -to grop off myself an’ tumble into the wylde again.” - -“What I want to know is,” said Budge, “how do they get things to eat -for the angels? Do they have grocery stores, an’ butcher shops, an’ -milk wagons up there?” - -“Gracious, no!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, her fingers instinctively moving -toward her ears. “The Lord provides food in some way that we don’t -understand. But this poor Lazarus, after he became an angel, looked -out of heaven, and saw, away off in the bad place, the rich man whose -leavings he used to eat, for the rich man had died too. And the rich -man begged Abraham----” - -“I fought his name was Lazharus?” said Toddie. - -“The poor man was named Lazarus,” said Mrs. Burton; “but when he -reached heaven he found good old Abraham there, and Abraham took care -of him. And the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus just to dip -his finger in water and rub it on the rich man’ lips, for he was so -thirsty.” - -“Why didn’t he get a drink for himself?” asked Budge. “Can’t rich -people wait on themselves even when they die?” - -“There is no water in the bad place,” said Mrs. Burton. “That was why -he was so thirsty.” - -“Goodnesh!” said Toddie. “How does little boysh make mud-pies there?” - -“I hope no little boys ever go there,” said Mrs. Burton. “But Abraham -said: ‘Not so, my friend. You had your good things while you were -alive; now you must get along without anything. But poor Lazarus must -be made happy, for he had very bad times when he was alive!’” - -[Illustration: “HOW DO THEY GET THINGS TO EAT FOR THE ANGELS?”] - -“Is that the way it is?” Budge asked. “Then I guess Abraham will -have to do lots for me when I die, for I have a good many bad times -nowadays. Then what did the bothered old rich man do about it?” - -“He told Abraham that he had some brothers that were alive yet, and -he wished that an angel might be sent to tell them to be good, so as -never to have to come to that dreadful place. But Abraham told him -it wouldn’t be of any use to send an angel. They had good books and -preachers that would tell them what to do.” - -“An’ did he have to go on bein’ thirsty forever?” asked Budge. - -“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Burton, with a shudder, and realizing why it -was that the doctrine of eternal torment was not more industriously -preached from the pulpit. - -“G’won!” remarked Toddie. - -“That is all there is of it,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Why you didn’t tell us a fing about the doctor-dogs,” complained -Toddie. - -“Oh, those are not nice to tell about,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“I fink deysh dzust de nicest fing about de story. Whenever I getsh a -sore finger, I goes an’ sits down by the back door an’ calls Terry. -But I don’t fink Terry’s a very good doctor, ’cauzh he don’t come -when I wants him. One of dese days when I getsh lotsh of soresh, like -Jimmy McNally when he had the smallpox, an’ Terry will want to see me -awful, I won’t let him see me a bit. Tell us ’nother story.” - -The sound of harp and fiddle came to Mrs. Burton’s rescue, and the boys -hurried to the front of the house to behold two very small Italians, -who were doing their utmost to teach adults the value of peace and -quietness. - -Budge and Toddie listened to the whole repertoire of the couple, -encored every selection, bestowed in payment the pennies their aunt -gave them for the purpose, and proposed to follow the musicians on -their route through the town, but their aunt stopped them. - -“What do those little fellows do with all the pennies they get?” asked -Budge. “Do they buy candy with them?” - -“What lotsh of candy they must have!” exclaimed Toddie. - -“I suppose they take their money home to their papas and mammas,” said -Mrs. Burton, “for they are very poor people. Perhaps the parents of -those two little boys are sick at this very moment, and are looking -anxiously for the return of their little boys who are so far away.” -(Mem. The first report of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to -Children had not been published at that time.) - -“An’ do the little boys make all that music dzust ’cauzh dey love -somebody?” asked Toddie. - -“Yes, dear.” - -“But folks always gets paid by the Lord for doin’ things for other -folks, don’t they, Aunt Alice?” asked Budge. - -“Yes, dear old fellow,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“One fing nysh about dem little boysh,” said Toddie, “ish dat, when -their papas an’ mammas is sick, dere isn’t anybody to tell ’em not to -get deir shoes dusty. Dzust see how dey walksh along in the middle of -the street, kickin’ up de dust, an’ nobody to say ‘Don’t!’s to ’em, -an’ nobody skrong enough to spynk ’em for it when dey gets home. I -wiss I was a musicker.” - -“Well, they’re gone now,” sighed Budge, “’an we want something else -to make us happy. Say, Aunt Alice, why don’t you have a horse an’ -carriage like mamma, so that you could take us out ridin’?” - -“Uncle Harry isn’t rich enough to keep good horses and carriages,” said -Mrs. Burton, “and he doesn’t like poor ones.” - -“Why, how much does good horses cost? I think Mr. Blanner’s horses are -pretty good, but papa says they’d be dear at ten cents apiece.” - -“I suppose a good horse costs three or four hundred dollars,” said Mrs. -Burton. - -“My--y--y!” exclaimed Budge. “That’ more money than it costs our -Sunday-school to pay for a missionary! Which is goodest--horses or -missionaries?” - -“Missionaries, of course,” said Mrs. Burton, leaving the piazza, with a -dim impression that she had, during the morning, answered a great many -questions with very slight benefit to any one. - -The boys cared for themselves until luncheon, and then returned -with rather less appetite than was peculiar to them. The new siege -of questioning which their aunt had anticipated was postponed; each -boy’s mind seemed to be in the reflective, rather than the receptive, -attitude. - -After luncheon they hastily disappeared, without any attempt on the -part of their aunt to prevent them, for Mrs. Burton had arranged -to make, that afternoon, one of the most important of calls. Mrs. -Congressman Weathervane had been visiting a friend at Hillcrest, and -Mrs. Weathervane’s mother and Mrs. Burton’s grandmother had been -schoolday acquaintances, and Mrs. Mayton would have come from the -city to pay her respects to the descendant of the old friend of -the family, but some of the infirmities of age prevented. And Mrs. -Mayton instructed her daughter to call upon Mrs. Weathervane as a -representative of the family, and Mrs. Burton would have lost her right -hand or her new spring hat rather than disregard such a command. So she -had hired a carriage and devised an irreproachable toilet, and recalled -and tabulated everything she had ever heard about the family of the -lady who had become Mrs. Weathervane. - -The carriage arrived, and no brace of boys dashed from unexpected -lurking-places to claim a portion of its seats. The carriage rolled -off in safety, and Mrs. Burton fell into an impromptu service of -praise to the kind power which often blesses us when we least expect -to be blessed. The carriage reached the house and the terrible Mrs. -Weathervane turned out to be one of the most charming of young women, -before whose sunny temperament Mrs. Burton’s assumed dignity melted -like the snow of May, and her store of venerable family anecdotes -disappeared at once from the memory which had guarded them jealously. - -[Illustration: THE SQUEAK OF THE VIOLIN AND THE WAIL OF A BADLY PLAYED -WIND INSTRUMENT] - -But joy is never unalloyed in this wicked world. While the couple were -chatting merrily, and Mrs. Weathervane was insisting that Mrs. Burton -should visit her at Washington during the session, and Mrs. Burton was -trying to persuade Mrs. Weathervane to accept the Burton hospitality -for at least a day or two, there arose under the window the squeak of -violin and the wail of some badly played wind instrument. - -“Those wretched little Italians!” exclaimed Mrs. Weathervane. “For -which of our sins, I wonder, are we condemned to listen to them?” - -“If they come as punishment for sins,” said Mrs. Burton, “how wicked I -must be, for this is my second experience with them to-day. They were -at my house for half an hour this morning.” - -“And you are sweet of disposition this afternoon?” said Mrs. -Weathervane. “Oh! I must spend a day or two with you, and take some -lessons in saintly patience.” - -Mrs. Burton inclined her head in acknowledgment, and Mrs. Weathervane -approached some other topic, when the violin under the window gave vent -to a series of terrible groans of anguish, while the wind-instrument, -apparently a flute, shrieked discordantly in three notes an octave -apart from each other. - -“An attempt to execute something upon one string, I suppose,” said -Mrs. Weathervane, “and the execution is successful only as criminal -executions are. What should be done to the little wretches? And yet -one can’t help giving them money; did you see the story of their -terrible life in the newspapers this week? It seems they are hired in -Italy by dreadful men, who bring them here, torture them into learning -their wretched tunes and then send them out to play and beg. They are -terribly whipped if they do not bring home a certain sum of money every -day.” - -“The poor little things!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “I’m glad that I gave -them a good many pennies this morning. I must have had an intuition of -their fate, for I’m certain I had no musical enjoyment to be paid for. -They can hardly be as old as some children in nurseries, either.” - -“No, indeed,” said Mrs. Weathervane, going to the window. “The elder -of these two boys cannot be more than six, while the younger may be -four; and the older looks so sad, so introspective! The younger--poor -little fellow--has only expectancy in his countenance. He is looking -up to all the windows for the pennies that he expects to be thrown to -him. He has probably not had so hard an experience as his companion, -for his instrument is only a common whistle. Think of the frauds which -their masters practise upon the tender-hearted! The idea of sending out -a child with a common whistle on the pretense of making music.” - -“It’s perfectly dreadful!” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Then to think what the parents of some of these children may have -been,” continued Mrs. Weathervane. “The older of this couple has -really many noble lines in his face, did not the long-drawn agony of -separation and abuse inscribe deeper ones there. The smaller one, -vilely dirty as he is, has a very picturesque head and figure. He is -smiling now. Oh! what wouldn’t I give if some artist could catch his -expression for me!” - -“Really,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, approaching the window; “I hadn’t -noticed so many charms about them, but I shall be glad to have them -pointed out to me. Mercy!” - -“What can be the matter?” murmured Mrs. Weathervane, as her visitor -fell back from the window and dropped into a chair. - -“They’re my nephews!” gasped Mrs. Burton. “Oh, what shall I do with -those dreadful children?” - -“Stolen from home?” inquired Mrs. Weathervane, discerning a romance -within reaching distance. - -“No--oh, no!” said Mrs. Burton. “I left them at home an hour or two -ago. I can’t imagine why they should have taken this freak, unless -because boys will be dreadful, no matter what is done for them. I -suppose,” she continued, hurrying to the window, “that Budge has his -uncle’s violin, which I think is fully as dear to its owner as his -wife. Yes, he has it! Boys!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, appearing at the -piazza-door, “go directly home.” - -At the sound of their aunt’s voice the boys looked up with glad smiles -of recognition, while Budge exclaimed, “Oh, Aunt Alice! we’ve played at -lots of houses, an’ we’ve got nearly a dollar. We told everybody we -was playin’ to help Uncle Harry buy a horse an’ carriage!” - -“Go home!” repeated Mrs. Burton. “Go by the back road, too. I am going -myself right away. Be sure that I find you there when I return.” - -Slowly and sadly the amateurs submitted to the fateful decree and moved -toward home, while Mrs Weathervane bestowed a sympathetic kiss upon -her troubled visitor. A great many people came to doors and windows -to see the couple pass by, but what was public interest to a couple -whose motive had been rudely destroyed? So dejected was their mien as -they approached the Burton mansion, and so listless was their step, -that the dog Terry, who was on guard at the front door, gave only an -inquiring wag of his tail, and did not change his position as the boys -passed over the door-mat upon which he lay. A moment or two later a -carriage dashed up to the door, and Mrs. Burton descended, hurried into -the house, and exclaimed: - -“How dared you to do such a vulgar, disgraceful thing?” - -“Well,” said Budge, “that’s another of the things we don’t understand -much about, even after we’re told. We thought we could be just as good -to you an’ Uncle Harry as dirty little Italian boys is to their papas -an’ mammas, an’ when we tried it, you made us go straight home.” - -“Dzust the same fing as saying ‘Don’t’s at us,” Toddie complained. - -“An’ after we got a whole lot of money, too!” said Budge. “Papa says -some big men don’t get more than a dollar in a day, an’ we got most a -dollar in a little bit of a while. It’s partly because we was honest, -though, I guess, an’ told the troof everywhere--we told everybody that -we wanted the money to help Uncle Harry to buy a horse an’ carriage.” - -[Illustration: UNCLE HARRY’S FRANTIC EXAMINATION OF HIS BELOVED VIOLIN] - -Uncle Harry himself, moved by his aching tooth, had returned from -New York in time to hear, unperceived, the last portion of Budge’s -explanation, after which he heard the remainder of the story from -his wife. His expression as he listened, his glance at his nephews, -and his frantic examination of his beloved violin, gave the boys to -understand how utter is sometimes the failure of good intentions to -make happy those persons for whose benefit they are exerted. The somber -reflections of the musicians were unchanged by anything which occurred -during the remainder of the afternoon, and when they retired, it was -with a full but sorrowful heart that Budge prayed: “Dear Lord, I’ve -been scolded again for tryin’ to do somethin’ real nice for other -people. I guess it makes me know something about how the good prophets -felt. Please don’t let me have to be killed for doin’ good. Amen.” - -And Toddie prayed: “Dee Lord, dere’ some more ‘Don’t’s been said to me, -an’ I fink Aunt Alice ought to be ’hamed of herself. Won’t you please -make her so? Amen.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - -“That,” murmured Mrs. Burton on Tuesday morning, as she prepared to -descend to the breakfast table, “promises a pleasant day.” Then, in a -louder tone, she said to her husband: “Harry, just listen to those dear -children singing! Aren’t their voices sweet?” - -“’Sing before breakfast, cry before dark,’” quoted Mr. Burton, quoting -a popular saying. - -“For shame!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “And when they’re singing sweet -little child-hymns too! There! they’re starting another.” - -Mrs. Burton took the graceful listening attitude peculiar to ladies, -her husband stood in the military position of “attention,” and both -heard the following morceau: - - “I want--to be--an an--gel - An’ with--the an--gels stand; - A crown--upon--my fore--head - A hop--per in--my hand.” - -“Hopper--h’m!” said Mr. Burton. “They refer to the hind-leg of a -grasshopper, my dear. The angelic life would be indeed dreary to those -youngsters without some such original plaything.” - -“You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” said the lady. “I hope you won’t -suggest any such notion to them. I don’t believe they would have had -so many peculiar views about the next world if some one hadn’t exerted -an improper influence--you and your brother-in-law Tom Lawrence, their -father, for instance.” - -“Well,” said Mr. Burton, “if they are so susceptible to the influence -of others, I suppose you have them about reformed in most respects? You -have had entire charge of them for seven days.” - -“Six--only six,” corrected Mrs. Burton, hastily. “I wish----” - -“That there really was one day less for them to remain?” said Mr. -Burton, looking his wife full in the face. - -Mrs. Burton dropped her eyes quickly, trying first to turn in search of -something she did not want, but her husband knew his wife’s nature too -much to be misled by this ruse. Putting as much tenderness in his voice -as he knew how to do, he said: - -“Little girl, tell the truth. Haven’t you learned more than they?” - -Mrs. Burton still kept her eyes out of range of those of her husband, -but replied with composure: - -“I have learned a great deal, as one must when brought in contact with -a new subject, but the acquired knowledge of an adult is the source of -new power, and of much and more knowledge to be imparted.” - -Mr. Burton contemplated his wife with curiosity which soon made place -for undisguised admiration, but when he turned his face again to the -mirror he could see in its expression nothing but pity. Meanwhile the -cessation of the children’s songs, the confused patter of little feet -on the stair, and an agonized yelp from the dog Terry, indicated that -the boys had left their chamber. Then the Burtons heard their own -door-knob turned, an indignant kick which followed the discovery that -the door was bolted, and then a shout of: - -“Say!” - -“What’s wanted?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“I want to come in,” answered Budge. - -“Me, too,” piped Toddie. - -“What for?” - -A moment of silence ensued, and then Budge answered: - -“Why, because we do. I should think anybody would understand that -without asking.” - -“Well, we bolted the door because we didn’t want any one to come in. I -should think anybody could understand that without asking.” - -“Oh! Well, I’ll tell you what we want to come in for; we want to tell -you something perfectly lovely.” - -“Do you wish to listen to an original romance, my dear?” asked Mr. -Burton. - -“Certainly,” replied the lady. - -“And break your resolution to teach them that our chamber is not a -general ante-breakfast gathering-place?” - -“Oh, they won’t infer anything of the kind if we admit them just once,” -said Mrs. Burton. - -“H’m--we won’t count this time,” quoted Mr. Burton from “Rip Van -Winkle,” with a suggestive smile, which was instantly banished by a -frown from his wife. Mr. Burton dutifully drew the bolt and both boys -tumbled into the room. - -“We were both leaning against the door,” explained Budge; “that’s why -we dropped over each other. We knew you’d let us in.” - -Mr. Burton gave his wife another peculiar look which the lady affected -not to notice as she asked: - -“What is the lovely thing you were going to tell us?” - -“Why----” - -“I--I--I--I--I----” interrupted Toddie. - -[Illustration: BOTH BOYS TUMBLED INTO THE ROOM] - -“Tod, be still!” commanded Budge. “I began it first.” - -“But I finked it fyst,” expostulated Toddie. - -[Ilustration: BOTH BOYS TUMBLED INTO THE ROOM] - -“I’ll tell you what, then, Tod--I’ll tell ’em about it an’ you worry -’em to do it. That’ fair, isn’t it?” and then, without awaiting the -result of Toddie’s deliberations Budge continued: - -“What we want is a picnic. Papa’ll lend you the carriage, and we’ll get -in it and go up to the Falls, and have a lovely day of it. That’s just -the nicest place I ever saw. You can swing us in the big swing there, -an’ take us in swimmin’, an’ row us in a boat, an’ buy us lemonade -at the hotel, an’ we can throw stones in the water, an’ paddle, an’ -catch fish, an’ run races. All these other things--not the first ones -I told you about--we can do for ourselves, an’ you an’ Aunt Alice can -lie on the grass under the trees, an’ smoke cigars, an’ be happy, -’cause you’ve made us happy. That’s the way papa does. An’ you must -take lots of lunch along, ’cause little boys gets pretty empty-feeling -when they go to such places. Oh, yes--an’ you can throw Terry in the -water an’ make him swim after sticks--I’ll bet he can’t get away there -without our catching him.” - -“But de lunch has got to be lots,” said Toddie, “else dere won’t be -any fun--not one bittie. An’ you’ll take us, won’t you? We’ze been -dreadful good all mornin’. I’ze singed Sunday songs until my froat’s -all sandy.” - -“All what?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“Sandy,” replied Toddie. “Don’t you know how funny it feels to rub sand -between your hands when you hazhn’t got djuvs on? If you don’t, I’ll go -bring you in some.” - -“Your aunt will take your word for it,” said Mr. Burton, as his wife -did not respond. - -“An’ we’ll be awful tired after the picnic’ done,” said Budge, “an’ -you can hold us in your arms in the carriage all the way back. That’s -the way papa an’ mamma does.” - -“Thank you,” said Mr. Burton. “That will be an inducement. And it -explains why your papa can make a new coat look old quicker than any -other man of my acquaintance.” - -“And why your mother always has a skirt to clean or mend,” said Mrs. -Burton. - -“It’s all told now, Tod,” said Budge. “Why don’t you worry ’em?” - -Toddie clasped his aunt’s skirts affectionately, and said, in most -appealing tones: - -“You’e a-goin’ to, izhn’t you?” - -“Papa says it was always easier for you to say ‘yes’s than ‘no,’” -remarked Budge; “an’----” - -“A fine reputation your brother-in-law gives you,” remarked Mrs. -Burton. - -“An’ I once heard a lady say she thought you said ‘yes’s pretty easy,” -continued Budge, addressing his aunt. “I thought she meant something -that you said to Uncle Harry, by the way she talked.” Mrs. Burton -flushed angrily, but Budge continued: “An’ you ought to be as good -to us as you are to him, ’cause he’s a big man, an’ don’t have to be -helped every time he wants any fun. Besides, you’ve got him all the -time, but you can only have us four days longer--three days besides -to-day.” - -“Another paraphrase of Scripture--application perfect,” remarked Mr. -Burton to his wife. “Shall we go?” - -“Can you?” asked the lady, suddenly grown radiant. - -“I suppose--oh, I know I can,” replied Mr. Burton, assuming that the -anticipation of a day in his society was the sole cause of his wife’s -joy. - -Mrs. Burton knew his thoughts but failed to correct them, guilty -though she felt at her neglect. That she would be practically relieved -of responsibility during the day was the cause of her happiness. The -children had always preferred the companionship of their uncle to that -of his wife; she had at times been secretly mortified and offended at -this preference, but in the week just ending she had entirely lost this -feeling. - -The announcement that their host and hostess thought favorably of the -proposition was received by the boys with lively manifestations of -delight, and for two hours no other two persons in the state were more -busy than Budge and Toddie. Even their appetites gave way under the -excitement and their stay at the breakfast table was of short duration. - -Budge visited his father and arranged for the use of the carriage -while Toddie superintended the packing of the eatables until the cook -banished him from the kitchen, and protected herself from subsequent -invasion by locking the door. Then both boys suggested enough extra -luggage to fill a wagon and volunteered instructions at a rate which -was not retarded by the neglect with which their commands were received. - -When the last package was taken into the carriage the dog Terry was -helped to a seat and the party started. They had been _en route_ about -five minutes, when Budge remarked: - -“Uncle Harry, I want a drink.” - -“Uncle Harry,” said Toddie, “I’m ’most starved to deff. I didn’t have -hardly any brekspup.” - -“Why not?” asked Mrs. Burton. “Wasn’t there plenty on the table?” - -“I doe know,” Toddie replied, looking inquiringly into his aunt’s face -as if to refresh his memory. - -“Weren’t you hungry at breakfast-time?” continued Mrs. Burton. - -“I--I--I--I--why, yesh--I mean my tummuk wazh hungry, but my toofs -wasn’t--dat’ de way it wazh. An’ I guesh what I’d better have now is -sardines an’ pie.” - -“Ethereal creature!” exclaimed Mr. Burton, giving Toddie a cracker. - -“I didn’t remember that I was hungry,” said Budge, “but Tod’s talking -about it reminds me. An’ I’d like that drink, too.” - -Budge also received some crackers and the carriage was stopped near a -well. The descent of Mr. Burton from the carriage compelled the dog -Terry to change his base, which operation was so impeded by skillful -efforts on the part of the boys that Terry suddenly leaped to the -ground and started for home, followed by a remonstrance from Toddie, -while Budge remarked: - -[Illustration: TODDIE DRANK ABOUT TWO SWALLOWS OF WATER] - -“He won’t ever go to heaven, Terry won’t. He don’t like to make people -happy.” - -Away went the carriage again and it had reached the extreme outskirts -of the town when Toddie said: - -“I’m awful fursty.” - -“Why didn’t you drink when Budge did?” demanded Mr. Burton. - -“’Cauzh I didn’t want to,” replied Toddie. “I izhn’t like old -choo-choos dat getsh filled up dzust ’cause dey comes to a watering -playzh. I only likesh to dwink when I’zhe fursty; an’ I’zhe fursty -now.” - -Another well was approached; Toddie drank about two swallows of water, -and replied to his aunt’s declaration that he couldn’t have been -thirsty at all by the explanation: - -“I doezn’t hold very much. I izhn’t like de horsesh, dat can dwink -whole pails full of water, an’ den hazh room for gwash. But I guesh -I’zhe got room for some cake.” - -“Then I’ll give you another cracker,” said Mr. Burton. - -“Don’t want one,” said Toddie. “Cwacker couldn’t push itself down as -easy as cake.” - -“I do believe,” said Mrs. Burton, “that the child’s animal nature -has taken complete possession of him. Eating and mischief has been -the whole of his life during the week, yet he used to be so sweetly -fanciful and sensitive.” - -“Children’s wits are like the wind, my dear,” said Mr. Burton. “’Thou -canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth’; you set your -sails for it, and behold it isn’t there, but when you’re not expecting -it, down comes the gale.” - -“A gale!” echoed Budge. “That’s what we’re goin’ to have to-day.” - -“Izn’t neiver,” said Toddie. “Goin’ to hazh a picnic.” - -“Well, gales and picnics is the same thing,” said Budge. - -“No, dey izhn’t. Galesh is kind o’s rough, but picnics is nysh. Galesh -is like rough little boysh, like you, but picnics is nysh, like dear -little sister-babies.” - -“Oh, dear,” sighed Budge, “we haven’t seen that baby for two days. -Let’s go right back an’ look at her.” - -“Budge, Budge!” remonstrated Mrs. Burton; “try to be content with what -you have, and don’t always be longing for something else. You can go to -see her when we return.” - -“I can see her wivout goin’ back,” said Toddie. “I can see anybody I -wantsh to, dzust whenever I pleash.” - -“Don’t be silly, Toddie,” remonstrated Mrs. Burton, in spite of a -warning nudge from her husband. - -“How do you see them, Toddie?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“Why, I duzst finks a fink about ’em, an’ den dey comezh wight inshide -of my eyezh, an’ I sees ’em. I see lotsh of peoples dat-a-way. I -sees AbrahammynIsaac, an’ Bliaff, an’ little Dave, an’ de Hebrew -children, an’ Georgie Washitton hatchetin’ down his papa’s tree, -whenever I finks about ’em. Oh, dere goezh a wabbit! Letsh stop an’ -catch him.” - -“Oh, no, let him go,” said Mr. Burton. “Perhaps he’s going home to -dinner, and his family are all waiting at the table for him.” - -“Gwacious!” said Toddie, opening his eyes very wide and keeping silence -for at least two minutes. Then he said, “I saw a wabbit family eatin’ -dinner once. Dey had a little bittie of a table, an’ little bitsh of -chairzh, an’ de papa wabbit ashkted a blessin’ an’----” - -“Toddie, Toddie, don’t tell fibs!” said Mrs. Burton, as she again felt -herself touched by her husband’s elbow. - -“Izn’t tellin’ fibs! An’ a little boy wabbit said, ‘Papa, I wantsh a -dwink.’s So his papa took a little tumbler, dzust about as big as a -fimble, an’ held a big leaf up sideways so de dew would run off into -de tumbler, an’ he gived it to the little boy wabbit. An’ when dey -got done dinner, de mamma wabbit gave each of de little boy wabbits -a strawberry to suck. An’ none of ’em had to be told to put on de -napkins, ’cause dey only had one dwess, and dat was a color dat didn’t -show dyte, like mamma says I ought to have.” - -“Were all the little rabbits boys--no girls at all?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“Yesh, dere was a little sister baby, but she wazh too little to come -to de table, so de mamma wabbit held her in her lap and played ‘Little -Pig Went to Market’s on her little bits of toes. Den de sister-baby got -tired, an’ de mamma wabbit wocked it in a wockin’-tsair, an’ sung to -it ’bout---- - - “Papa gone a-huntin’, - To get a little wabbit-skin - To wap a baby buntin--baby wabbit--in.” - -Den de baby-wabbit got tired of its mamma, an’ got down an’ cwept -around on itsh handsh an’ kneezh, an’ didn’t dyty its djess at all -or make its kneezh sore a bit, ’cauzh dere wazh only nice leaves an’ -pitty fynes for it to cweep on, instead of ugly old carpets. Say, do -you know I was a wabbit once?” - -“Why, no,” said Mr. Burton. “Do tell us about it.” - -“Harry!” remonstrated Mrs. Burton. - -“He believes it, my dear,” explained her husband. “He has his ’weetly -fanciful’ mood on now, that you were moaning for a few moments ago. Go -on, Toddie.” - -“Why, I was a wabbit, and lived all by myself in a hole froo de bottom -of a tree. An’ sometimes uvver wabbits came to see me, an’ we all sat -down on our foots an’ bowled our ears to each uvver. Dogsh came to -see me sometimes, but I dzust let dem wing de bell an’ didn’t ask ’em -to come in. An’ den a dzentleman came an’ asked me to help him make -little boysh laugh in a circus. So I runned around de ring, and picked -up men an’ fings wif my tchunk----” - -“Rabbits don’t have trunks, Toddie.” - -“I know it, but I tyned into a ephalant. An’ I got lotsh of hay an’ -fings wif my tchunk, an’ folks gave me lotsh of cakes an’ candies to -see me eat ’em wif my tchunk, an’ I was so big I could hold ’em all, -an’ I didn’t have any mamma ephalant to say, ‘Too muts cake an’ candy -will make you sick, Toddie.’” - -“Anything more?” asked Mr. Burton. “We can stand almost anything.” - -“Well, I gotted to be a lion den, and had to roar so much dat my froat -gotted all sandy, so I got turned into a little boy again, an’ I was -awful hungry. I guesh ’twas djust now.” - -“Can you resist that hint, my dear?” Mr. Burton asked. His wife, with a -sigh, opened a basket and gave a piece of cake to Toddie, who remarked: - -“Dish izh to pay me for tellin’ de troof about all dem fings, izhn’t -it?” - -About this time the party reached Little Falls, and Budge said: - -“I suppose lunch’ll be the first thing?” - -“No,” said Mrs. Burton; “we won’t lunch until our usual hour.” - -“But you can have all the drinks you want,” said Mr. Burton. “There’s a -whole river full of water.” - -“Oh, I don’t feel as if I’d ever be thirsty again,” said Budge. “But I -wish Terry was here to swim in after sticks. You do it, won’t you? You -play dog an’ I’ll play Uncle Harry an’ throw things to you.” - -By this time Toddie had sought the water’ edge, and, taking a stooping -position, looked for fish. The shelving stone upon which he stood was -somewhat moist and Toddie was so intent on his search that he stooped -forward considerably. Suddenly there was heard a splash and a howl, and -Toddie was seen in the river, in water knee-deep. To rescue him was the -work of only a moment, but to stop his tears was no such easy matter. - -[Illustration: SUDDENLY HEARD A SPLASH AND A HOWL] - -“What is to be done?” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. - -“Take off his shoes and stockings and let him run barefooted,” said Mr. -Burton. “The day is warm, so he can’t catch cold.” - -“Oh!” exclaimed Toddie, “Izh I goin’ to be barefoot all day? I wishes -dish river wazh wight by our housh; I’d tumble in every day. Budgie, -Budgie, if you wantsh fun dzust go tumble splash into de river.” - -But Budge had strolled away, and was tugging at some moss in a crevice -of rock. Here his aunt found him, and he explained, toiling as he -talked: - -“I thought--this--would make such--a--lovely cushion for--for you to -sit on.” - -The last word and the final tug were concurrent and the moss gave way; -so did Budge, and with a terrific scream, for a little snake had made -his home under the moss, and was expressing indignation, in his own -way, at being disturbed. - -“I won’t never do nothin’ for nobody again,” screamed Budge. “I’ll see -that snake every time I shut my eyes, now.” - -“You poor, dear little fellow,” said Mrs. Burton, caressing him -tenderly. “I wish Aunt Alice could do something to make you forget it.” - -“Well, you can’t, unless--unless, maybe, a piece of pie would do it. It -wouldn’t do any harm to try, I s’pose?” - -Mrs. Burton hurried to unpack a pie, as her husband remarked that -Budge was born to be a diplomatist. Looking suspiciously about, for -fear that Toddie might espy Budge’s prescription, and devise some -ailment which it would exactly suit, she discovered that Toddie was out -of sight. - -“Oh, he’s gone, Harry! Hurry and find him. Perhaps he’s gone above the -Falls. I do wish we had gone further down the river!” - -Mr. Burton took a lively double-quick up and along the bank of the -river, but could see nothing of his nephew. - -After two or three minutes, however, above the roar of the falling -water, he heard a shrill voice singing over and over again a single -line of an old Methodist hymn, - - “Roar--ing riv--ers, migh--ty fountains!” - -Following the sound, he peered over the bank, and saw Toddie in a sunny -nook of rocks just below the Falls, and in a very ecstasy of delight. -He would hold out his hands as if to take the fall itself; then he -would throw back his head and render his line with more force; then -he would dance frantically about, as if his little body was unable to -comfortably contain the great soul within it. - -Suddenly coming up the sands below the cliff appeared Mrs. Burton, -whose apprehensions had compelled her to join in the search. - -“Oh, Aunt Alish!” exclaimed Toddie, discovering his aunt, and hurrying -to grasp her hand in both of his own; “dzust see de water dance! Do you -see all de lovely lights dat de Lord’s lit in it? Don’t you wiss you -could get in it, an’ fly froo it, an’ have it shake itself all over -you, an’ shake yourself in it, an’ shake it all off of you, an’ den -fly into it aden? Deresh placesh like dis up in hebben. I know, ’cauzh -I saw ’em--one time I did. An’ all the andzels staid around ’em, an’ -flew in an’ out, an’ froo an’ froo’s an’ laughed like everyfing!” - -Mr. Burton concealed all of himself but his eyes and hat to observe the -impending conflict of ideas; but no conflict ensued, for Mrs. Burton -snatched her nephew and kissed him soundly. But Toddie wriggled away, -exclaiming: - -“Don’t do dat, or I’ll get some uvver eyes when I don’t want ’em.” - -How long Toddie’s ecstasy might have endured the Burtons never knew, -for a clatter of horse-hoofs on the road attracted Mr. Burton, and, -looking hastily back, he beheld one of his brother’s horses galloping -wildly back towards Hillcrest, while, just letting go of a reinstrap, -and enlivening the dust of the roadway, was the form of the boy Budge, -whose voice rose shrilly above the thunder of the falling waters. - -[Illustration: BUDGE ENLIVENED THE DUST OF THE ROADWAY] - -Mr. Burton attempted first to catch the horse, but the animal shied -successfully and had so clear a stretch of roadway before him that -humanity soon had Mr. Burton’s heart for its own and he hurried to the -assistance of Budge. - -“I--boo-hoo--was just goin’ to lead the--boo-hoo-hoo--horse down to -water like--boo-hoo-hoo--ah--like papa does, when he--oh! how my elbow -hurts!--just pulled away an’ went off. An’ I caught the strap to stop -him, an’--oh! he just pulled me along on my mouth in the dirt about -ten miles. I swallowed all the dirt I could, but I guess I’ve got a -mouthful left.” - -Mr. Burton hurriedly unharnessed the other horse, and started, riding -bareback, in search of the runaway, while his wife, who had intuitively -scented trouble in the air, hurried up the cliff with Toddie, and -led both boys to the shadow of the carriage, with instructions to be -perfectly quiet until their uncle returned. - -“Can’t we talk?” asked Toddie. - -“Oh, not unless you need to for some particular purpose,” said Mrs. -Burton, who, like most other people in trouble, fought most earnestly -against any form of diversion which should keep her from the extremity -of worry. “Can’t little boys’s mouths ever be quiet?” - -“Why, yes,” said Budge, “when there’ something in ’em to keep ’em -still.” - -In utter desperation Mrs. Burton unpacked all the baskets and told the -children to help themselves. As for her, she sought the roadside and -gazed earnestly for her husband. Wearied at last by hope deferred she -returned to the carriage to find that the boys had eaten all the pie -and cake, drank the milk and ate the sugar which were to have formed -part of some delicious coffee which Mr. Burton was to have made _à la -militaire_, and had battered into shapelessness a box of sardines by -attempting to open it with a stone. - -“You bad boys!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Now what will your poor uncle -have to eat when he comes back all tired, hungry, and thirsty and all -because of your mischief, Budge.” - -“Why, we haven’t touched the crackers, Aunt Alice,” said Budge.” -They’re what he gave us when we said we was awful hungry, an’ there’s -a whole river full of water to drink, like he told us about when he -thought we was thirsty.” - -The information did not seem to console Mrs. Burton, who ventured to -the roadside with the feeling that she could endure it to know that -her husband was starving if she could only see him safe back again. The -moments dragged wearily on, the boys grew restive and then cross, and -at about three in the afternoon, Mr. Burton reappeared. The runaway -had nearly reached home, breaking a shoe _en route_, and his captor -had found it necessary to seek a blacksmith. The horse he rode had -evidently never been broken to the saddle, and many had been the jeers -of the village boys at his rider’s apparent mismanagement. All he knew -now was that he was ravenously hungry. - -“And the boys have eaten everything but the bread and crackers,” gasped -Mrs. Burton. “I’ve not eaten a mouthful.” - -“Goodness!” exclaimed Mr. Burton, feeling the boys’s waist-belts; -“didn’t they throw anything away?” - -“Only down our froats.” said Toddie. - -“Then I’ll go to the nearest hotel,” said the disappointed man,” and -get a nice dinner.” - -“We’ll go too,” said Budge. “Pie an’ cake an’ all such things don’t -fill people a bit on picnics.” - -“Then a little emptiness will be best for you,” said Mr. Burton. “You -remain here with your aunt.” - -“Well, hurry up, then,” said Budge. “Here’s the afternoon half gone, -Aunt Alice says, and you haven’t made us a whistle, or taken us in -swimmin’, or let us catch fishes, or throwed big stones in the water -for us, or anythin’.” - -Mr. Burton departed with becoming meekness, his nephew’s admonition -ringing in his ears, while the boys hovered solemnly about their aunt -until she exclaimed: - -“Why are you acting so strangely, boys?” - -“Oh, we feel kind o’s forlorn, an’ we want to be comforted,” said -Budge. - -“Will you comfort poor Uncle Harry when he comes back?” asked Mrs. -Burton. - -“Why, I heard him once tell you that you were his comfort,” said Budge; -“and comforts oughtn’t to be mixed up if folks is goin’ to get all the -good out of ’em; that’s what papa says.” - -Mrs. Burton kissed both nephews effusively and asked them what she -could do for them. - -“I doe know,” said Toddie. - -Inspiration came to Mrs. Burton’s assistance and she said, - -“You may both do exactly as you please.” - -“Hooray!” shouted Budge. - -“An’ you izhn’t goin’ to say ‘Don’t!’s a single bit?” Toddie asked. - -“No.” - -“Oh!” exclaimed both brothers, in unison. - -Then they clasped hands and walked slowly and silently away. They even -stopped to kiss each other, while Mrs. Burton looked on in silent -amazement. - -Was this really the result of not keeping a watchful eye upon children? - -The boys rambled quietly along, sat down on a large rock, put their -arms around each other and gazed silently at the scenery. They sat -there until their uncle returned and their aunt pointed out the couple -to him. Then the adults insensibly followed the example set by the -juveniles, and on the banks of the river sweet peace ruled for an hour, -until old Sol, who once stood still to look at a fight but never paused -to contemplate humanity conquered by the tender influences of nature, -warned the party that it was time to return. - -“It’s time to go, boys,” said Mr. Burton, with a sigh. - -The words snapped the invisible thread that had held the children in -exquisite captivity, and they were boys again in an instant, though -not without a wistful glance at the Eden they were leaving. - -“Now, Uncle Harry,” said Budge, “there’ always one thing that’s got to -be done before a picnic an’ a ride is just right, an’ that is for me -to drive the horses.” - -“An’ me to hold de whip,” said Toddie. - -“Oh, I think you’ve done your whole duty to-day--both of you,” said Mr. -Burton, instinctively grasping his lines more tightly. - -“But we don’t,” said Budge, “an’ we know. Goin’ up the mountain papa -always lets us do it an’ he says the horses always know the minute we -take ’em in hand.” - -“I shouldn’t wonder. Well, here’s a hill; take hold!” - -Budge seized the reins, and Toddie took the whip from its socket. The -noble animals at once sustained their master’s statement, for they -began to prance in a manner utterly unbecoming quiet family horses. -Mrs. Burton clutched her husband’s arm, and Mr. Burton prudently laid -his own hand upon the loop of the reins. - -The crest of the hill was reached, Mr. Burton took the reins from the -hand of his nephew, but Toddie made one final clutch at departing -authority by giving the off horse a spirited cut. Tom Lawrence would -never own a horse that needed a touch of the whip, though that emblem -of authority always adorned his carriage. When, therefore, this -unfamiliar attention greeted them the horse who was struck became -gloriously indignant, and his companion sympathized with him and the -heels of both animals shot high in the air and then, at a pace which -nothing could arrest, the horses dashed down the rocky, rugged road. -The top of a boulder, whose side had been cleanly washed, lay in the -path of the carriage, and Mr. Burton gave the opposite rein a hasty -twist about his hand as he tried to draw to the side of the road. But -what was a boulder, that equine indignation should regard it? The stone -was directly in front and in line of the wheels. Mrs. Burton prepared -for final dissolution by clasping her husband tightly with one arm, -while with the other she clutched at the reins. The boys started the -negro hymn, “Oh, De Rocky Road to Zion,” the wheels struck the boulder, -four people described curves in air and ceased only when their further -progress was arrested by some bushes at the roadside. The carriage -righted itself and was hurried home by the horses, while a party -of pedestrians, two of whom were very merry and two utterly reticent, -completed their journey on foot, pausing only to bathe scratched -faces at a brookside. And when, an hour later, two little boys had -been prepared for bed, and their temporary guardians were alternately -laughing and complaining over the incidents of the day, a voice was -heard at the head of the stairs, saying: - -[Illustration: FURTHER PROGRESS WAS ARRESTED] - -“Uncle Harry, are we going to finish the picnic to-morrow? ’Cause we -didn’t get half through to-day. There’s lots of picnicky things that we -didn’t get a chance to think about.” - -And another voice shouted: - -“An’ letsh take more lunch wif us. I’zhe been awful hungwy all day -long!” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - -“Only three more days,” soliloquized Mrs. Burton, when the departure -of her husband for New York and the disappearance of the boys gave -her a quiet moment to herself. “Three more days, and then peace--and -a life-long sense of defeat! And by whom? By two mere infants--in -years. I erred in not taking them singly. When they are together it’s -impossible to take their minds from their own childish affairs long -enough to impress them with larger sense and better ways. But I didn’t -take them singly, and I have talked, and oh--stupidest of women!--I’ve -blundered upon my husband for my principal listener. He does get along -with them better than I do, and the exasperating thing about it is -that he seems to do it without the slightest effort. How is it? They -cling to him, obey him, sit by the roadside for an hour before train -time just to catch the first glimpse of him, while I--am I growing -uninteresting? Many women do after they marry, but I didn’t think -that I”--here Mrs. Burton extracted a tiny mirror from a vase on the -mantel--“that I could be made stupid by marrying a loving old merry -heart like Harry!” - -Mrs. Burton scrutinized her lineaments intently. A wistful earnestness -stole into her face as she studied it, and it softened every line. -Suddenly but softly a little arm stole about her neck, and a little -voice exclaimed: - -“Aunt Alice, why don’t you always look that way? There! Now you’re -stoppin’ it. Big folks is just like little boys, ain’t they? Mamma -says it’s never safe to tell us we’re good, ’cause we go an’ stop it -right away.” - -“When did you come in, Budge? How did you come so softly? Have you been -listening? Don’t you know it is very impolite to listen to people when -they’re not talking to you? Why, where are your shoes and stockings?” - -“Why,” said Budge,” I took ’em off so’--so’ to get some cake for a -little tea-party without makin’ a noise about it! You say our little -boots make an awful racket. But say, why don’t you?” - -“Why don’t I what?” asked Mrs. Burton, her whole train of thought -whisking out of sight at lightning speed. - -“Why don’t you always look like you did a minute ago? If you did, I -wouldn’t ever play or make trouble a bit. I’d just sit still all the -time, and do nothin’ but look at you.” - -“How did I look, Budge?” asked Mrs. Burton, taking the child into her -arms. - -“Why, you looked as if--as if--well, I don’t ’zactly know. You looked -like papa’ picture of Jesus’s mamma does, after you look at it a long -time an’ nobody is there to bother you. I never saw anybody else look -that way ’xcept my mamma, an’ when she does it I don’t ever say a -word, else mebbe she’ll stop.” - -“You can have the cake you came for,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“I don’t want any cake,” said Budge, with an impatient movement. “I -don’t want any tea-party. I want to stay with you, an’ I want you to -talk to me, ’cause you’re beginnin’ to look that way again.” Here Budge -nearly strangled his aunt in a tight embrace, and kissed her repeatedly. - -“You darling little fellow,” asked Mrs. Burton, while returning his -caresses, “do you know why I looked as I did? I was wondering why you -and Toddie love your Uncle Harry so much better than you love me, and -why you always mind him and disobey me.” - -Budge was silent for a moment or two, then he sighed and answered: - -“’Cause.” - -“Because of what?” asked Mrs. Burton. “You would make me very happy if -you were to explain it to me.” - -[Illustration: “WELL,” SAID BUDGE, “CAUSE YOU’RE DIFFERENT.”] - -“Well,” said Budge, “’cause you’re different.” - -“But, Budge, I know a great many people who are not like each other, -but I love them equally well.” - -“They ain’t uncles and aunts, are they?” - -“No, but what has that to do with it?” - -“And they’re not folks you have to mind, are they?” continued Budge. - -“N----no,” said Mrs. Burton, descrying a dim light afar off. - -“Do they want you to do things their way?” - -“Some of them do.” - -“An’ do you do it?” - -“Sometimes I do.” - -“You don’t unless you want to, do you?” - -“No!” - -“Well, neither do I,” said Budge. “But when Uncle Harry wants me to do -somethin’, why somehow or other I want to do it myself after a while. -I don’t know why, but I do. An’ I don’t always, when you tell me to. -I love you ever so much when you ain’t tellin’ me things, but when you -are, then they ain’t ever what I want to do. That’s all I know ’bout -it. ’Xcept, he don’t want me to do such lots of things as you do. He -likes to see us enjoy ourselves; but sometimes I think you don’t. -We can’t be happy only our way, an’ our way seems to be like Uncle -Harry’, an’ yours ain’t.” - -Mrs. Burton mused, and gradually her lips twitched back into their -natural lines. - -“There--you ’re stoppin’ lookin’ that way,” said Budge, sighing and -straightening himself. “I guess I do want the cake an’ the tea-party.” - -“Don’t go, Budgie, dear,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, clasping the boy -tightly. “When any one teaches you anything that you want very much to -know doesn’t it make you happy?” - -“Oh, yes--lots,” said Budge. - -“Well, then, if you try, perhaps you can teach Aunt Alice something -that she wants very much to know.” - -“What!” exclaimed Budge. “A little boy teach a grown folks lady? I -guess I’ll stay.” - -“I want to understand all about this difference between your Uncle -Harry and me,” continued Mrs. Burton. “Do you think you minded him very -well last summer?” - -“That’s too long ago for me to remember,” said Budge “But I didn’t ever -mind him unless I wanted to, or else had to, an’ when I had to an’ -didn’t want to I didn’t love him a bit. I talked to papa about it when -we got back home again, an’ he said ’twas ’cause Uncle Harry didn’t -know us well enough an’ didn’t always have time to find out all about -us. Then they had a talk about it--papa and Uncle Harry did, in the -library one day. I know they did, ’cause I was playin’ blocks in a -corner, an’ I just stopped a-playin’ an’ listened to ’em. An’ all -at once papa said, ‘Little pitchers!’s an’ said I’d oblige him very -much if I’d go to the store and buy him a box of matches. But I just -listened a minute after I went out of the room, until I heard Uncle -Harry say he’d been a donkey. I knew he was mistaken about that, so I -went back an’ told him he hadn’t ever been any animals but what’s in -a menagerie, an’ then they both laughed an’ went out walkin’, an’ -I don’t know what they said after that. Only Uncle Harry’s been awful -good to me ever since, though sometimes I bother him when I don’t mean -to.” - -Mrs. Burton released one arm from her nephew and rested her head -thoughtfully upon her hand. Budge looked up and exclaimed: - -“There! You’re looking that way again. Say, Aunt Alice, don’t Uncle -Harry love you lots an’ lots when you look so?” - -Mrs. Burton recalled evidence of such experiences, but before she could -say so a small curly head came cautiously around the edge of the door, -and then it was followed by the whole of Toddie, who exclaimed: - -“I fink you’s a real mean bruvver, Budgie! De tea-party’s been all -ready for you an’ de cake till I had to eat up all de strawberries to -keep de nasty little ants from eatin’ ’em. I yet up de cabbage-leaf -plate dey was in, too, to keep me from gettin’ hungrier.” - -“There!” exclaimed Budge, springing from his aunt’s lap.” That’s just -the way, whenever I’m lovin’ to anybody, somethin’ always goes and -happens.” - -“Is that all you care for your aunt, Budge?” asked Mrs. Burton. “Is a -tea-party worth more than me?” - -Budge reflected for a moment. “Well,” said he, “didn’t you cry when -your tea-party was spoiled last week on your burfday? To be sure, your -tea-party was bigger than ours, but then you’re a good deal bigger than -we, too, an’ I haven’t cried a bit.” - -Mrs. Burton saw the point and was mentally unable to avoid it. The view -was not a pleasant one, and grew more humiliating the longer it was -presented. It was, perhaps, to banish it that she rose from her chair, -brought from a closet in the dining-room some of the coveted cake and -gave a piece to each boy, saying: - -“It isn’t that Aunt Alice cares so much for her cake, dears, that she -doesn’t like you to have it between meals, but because it is bad for -little boys to eat such heavy food excepting at their regular meals. -There are grown people who were once happy little children, but now -they are very cross all the while because their stomachs are disordered -by having eaten when they should not, and eating things which are -richer and heavier than their bodies can use.” - -“Well,” said Budge, crowding the contents of his mouth into his cheeks, -“we can eat somethin’ plainer an’ lighter to mix up with ’em inside -of us. I should think charlotte-russe or whipped cream would be about -the thing. Shall I ask the cook to fix some?” - -“No! Exercise would be better than anything else. I think you had -better take a walk.” - -“Up to Hawkshnesht Rock?” Toddie suggested. - -“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Budge. “An’ you come with us, Aunt Alice; perhaps -you’ll look that way again; that way, you know, an’ I wouldn’t like to -lose any of it.” - -[Illustration: PRETENDING TO BE HORSES] - -Mrs. Burton could not decline so delicate an invitation, and soon the -trio were on the road, Mrs. Burton walking leisurely on the turf by -the side, while the boys ploughed their way through the dust of the -middle of the road, pretending to be horses and succeeding so far as to -create a dust-cloud which no team of horses could have excelled. - -“Boys, boys!” shouted Mrs. Burton. “Is no one going to be company for -me?” - -“Oh, I’ll be your gentleman,” said Budge. - -“I’ll help,” said Toddie, and both boys hurried to their aunt’s side. - -“Little boys,” said Mrs. Burton, gently, “do you know that your mamma -and papa have to pay a high price for the fun you have in kicking up -dust? Look at your clothes! They must be sent to the cleaner’s before -they will ever again be fit to wear where respectable people can see -you.” - -“Then,” said Budge, “they’re just right to give to poor little boys, -and just think how glad they’ll be! I guess they’ll thank the Lord -’cause we run in the dust.” - -“The poor little boys would have been just as glad to have them while -they were clean,” said Mrs. Burton, “and the kindness would have cost -your papa and mamma no more.” - -“Well, then--then--then I guess we’d better talk about something -else,” said Budge, “an’ go ’long froo the woods instead of in the -road. Oh--h--h!” he continued, kicking through some grass under the -chestnut-trees by the roadside, “here’s a chestnut! Is it chestnut-time -again already?” - -“Oh, no, that’s one of last year’s nuts.” - -“H’m!” exclaimed Budge; “I ought to have known that. It’s dreadfully -old-fashioned.” - -“Old-fashioned?” - -“Yes; it’s full of wrinkles, don’t you see; like the face of Mrs. -Paynter, an’ you say she’s old-fashioned.” - -“Aunt Alice,” said Toddie, “birch-trees izh de only kind dat wearzsh -Sunday clothes, ain’t dey? Deyzh always all in white, like me and -Budgie, when we goes to Sunday-school. Gwacious!” he exclaimed, as he -leaned against one of the birches and examined its outer garments. -“Deyzh Sunday trees awful; dish one is singin’ a song! Dzust -come--hark!” - -Though somewhat startled at the range of Toddie’s imagination, and -wondering what incentive it had on the present occasion, Mrs. Burton -approached the tree, and solved the mystery by hearing the breeze -sighing softly through the branches. She told Toddie what caused the -sound, and the child replied: - -“Den it’s de Lord come down to sing in it, ’cauzh it’s got Sunday -clothes on. Datsh it, izhn’t it?” - -“Oh, no, Toddie; the wind is only the wind.” - -“Why I always fought it wazh the Lord a-talkin’, when the wind blowed. -I guesh somebody tolded me so, ’cauzh I fought dat before I had many -uvver finks.” - -Up the mountain-road leisurely sauntered Mrs. Burton, while her nephews -examined every large stone, boulder tree and hole in the ground _en -route_. - -The top of the hill was gained at last and with a long-drawn “Oh!” both -boys sat down and gazed in delight at the extended scene before them. -Budge broke the silence by asking: - -“Aunt Alice, don’t you s’pose dear brother Phillie, up in heaven, is -lookin’ at all these towns, an’ hills, an’ rivers, an’ things, just -like we are?” - -“Very likely, dear.” - -“Well, then he can see a good deal further than we can. Do our spirits -have new eyes put in ’em when they get up to heaven?” - -“I don’t know. Perhaps they merely have their sight made better.” - -“Why, does spirits take deir old eyes wif ’em to hebben, an’ leave all -de rest part of ’em in de deader?” asked Toddie. - -Mrs. Burton realized that she had been too hasty in assuming knowledge -of spiritual physiognomy, and she endeavored to retract by saying: - -“Spiritual eyes and bodily eyes are different.” - -“Does dust and choo-choo cinders ever get into spirit eyes, an’ make -little boy andzels cry, and growed-up andzels say swear wordsh?” asked -Toddie. - -“Certainly not. There’s no crying or swearing in heaven.” - -“Then what does angels do with the water in their eyes, when they hear -music that makes ’em feel as if wind was blowin’ fro ’em?” asked Budge. - -Mrs. Burton endeavored to change the subject of conversation to one -with which she was more familiar, by asking Budge if he knew that there -were hills a hundred times as high as Hawksnest Rock. - -“Goodness, no! Why, I should think you could look right into heaven -from the tops of them. Can’t you?” - -“No,” said Mrs. Burton, with some impatience at the result of her -attempt.” Besides, their tops are covered with snow all the time, and -nobody can get up to them.” - -“Then the little boy andzels can play snowballs on ’em wifout no cross -mans comin’ up an’ sayin’, ‘Don’t!’” said Toddie. - -Mrs. Burton tried again: - -“See how high that bird is flying,” she said, pointing to a hawk who -was soaring far above the hill. - -“Yes,” said Budge. “He can go up into heaven whenever he wants to, -’cause he’s got wings. I don’t know why birds have got wings and little -boys haven’t.” - -“Little boys are already hard enough to find when they’re wanted,” said -Mrs. Burton. “If they had wings they’d always be out of sight. But what -makes you little boys talk so much about heaven to-day?” - -“Oh, ’cause we’re up so much closer to it, I suppose,” said Budge, -“when were on a high hill like this.” - -“Don’t you think it must be nearly lunching time?” asked Mrs. Burton, -using, in despair, the argument which has seldom failed with healthy -children. - -“Certainly,” said Budge. “I always do. Come on, Tod. Let’s go the -quickest way.” - -The shortest way was by numerous short cuts, with which the boys seemed -perfectly acquainted. One of these, however, was by a steep incline, -and Budge, perhaps snuffing the lunch-basket afar off, descended so -rapidly that he lost his balance, fell forward, tried to recover -himself, failed, and slipped rapidly through a narrow path which -finally ended in a gutter traversing it. - -“Ow!” he exclaimed as he picked himself up, and relieved himself of a -mouthful of mud. “Did you see my back come up an’ me walk down the -mountain on my mouth? I think a snake would be ashamed of himself to -see how easy it was. I didn’t try a bit, I just went slip, slop, bunk! -to the bottom.” - -“An’ you didn’t get scolded for dytyin’ your clothes, either.” said -Toddie. “Let’ sing ‘Gloly, Gloly, Hallehelyah.” - -The subject of dirt upon juvenile raiment began to trouble the mind -of Mrs. Burton. Could it be possible that children had a natural -right to dirtier clothing than adults, and without incurring special -blame? Was dirtiness sinful? Well, yes--that is, it was disgusting, -and whatever was disgusting was worse in the eyes of Mrs. Burton than -what was sinful. Could children be as neat as adults? Had they either -the requisite sense, perception or the acquired habit of carefulness? -Again Mrs. Burton went into a study of the brownest description, while -the children improved her moments of preoccupation to do all sorts -of things which would have seemed dreadful to their aunt but were -delightful to themselves. At length, however, they reached the Burton -dining-table, and managed a series of rapid disappearances for whatever -was upon it. - -[Illustration: BUDGE LOST HIS BALANCE] - -“Aunt Alice,” said Budge, after finishing his meal, “what are you -going to do to make us happy this afternoon?” - -“I think,” said Mrs. Burton,” I shall allow you to amuse yourselves. -I shall be quite busy superintending the baking. Our cook has only -recently come to us, you know, and she may need some help from me.” - -“I fought bakin’ wazh alwaysh in mornin’?” said Toddie. “My mamma says -dat only lazy peoplesh bakesh in affernoonzh.” - -“The cook was too busily engaged otherwise this morning, Toddie,” said -Mrs. Burton. “Besides, people bake mornings because they are compelled -to; for, when they put bread to rise overnight, they must bake in the -morning. But there is a new kind of yeast now that lets us make our -bread whenever we want to, within a couple of hours from the time of -beginning.” - -“Do you know, Aunt Alice,” said Budge, “that we can bake? We can--real -nice. We’ve helped mamma make pies an’ cakes lots of times, only hers -are big ones an’ ours are baby ones.” - -“I suppose I am to construe that remark as a hint that you would like -to help me?” said Mrs. Burton. “If you will do only what you are told, -you may go to the kitchen with me; but listen--the moment you give the -cook or me the least bit of trouble, out you shall go.” - -“Oh, goody, goody!” shouted Toddie. “An’ can we have tea-parties on de -kitchen-table as fast as we bake fings?” - -“I suppose so.” - -“Come on. My hands won’t be still a bittie, I wantsh to work so much. -How many kindsh of pies is you goin’ to make?” - -“None at all.” - -“Gwacious! I shouldn’t fink you’d call it bakin’-day den. Izhn’t you -goin’ to make noffin’ but ole nashty bwead?” - -“Perhaps I can find a way for you to make a little cake or some buns,” -said Mrs. Burton, relenting. - -“Well, that would be kind o’s bakin’-day like; but my hands is gettin’ -still again awful fasht.” - -Mrs. Burton led the way to the kitchen, and the preparation of the -staff of life was begun by the new cook, with such assistance as a -small boy wedged closely under each elbow, and two inquiring faces -hanging over the very edge of the bread-pan. - -“That don’t look very cakey,” remarked Budge. “She ain’t put any powder -into it.” - -“This kind of bread needs no powder. Baking-powders are used only in -tea-biscuit.” - -“When tea-biscuits goes in de oven deysh little bits of flat fings,” -said Toddie--“deysh little bits of flat fings, but when dey comes out -dey’s awful big an’ fat. What makes ’em bake big?” - -“That’s what the powder is put in for,” said Mrs. Burton. “They’d be -little, tasteless things if it weren’t for the powder. Bridget, work -some sweetening with a little of the dough, so the boys can have some -buns.” - -Both boys escorted the cook to the pantry for sugar, and back again to -the table, and got their noses as nearly as possible under the roller -with which the sugar was crushed, and they superintended the operation -of working it into the dough, and then Mrs. Burton found some very -small pans in the center of which the boys put single buns which they -were themselves allowed to shape. A happy inspiration came to Mrs. -Burton; she brought a few raisins from the pantry and placed one upon -the center of each tiny bun as it was made, and she was rewarded by a -dual shriek of delight. - -“Stop, Toddie!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, suddenly noticing that Toddie -was shaping his dough by rolling it vigorously between his hands, as -little boys treat clay while attempting to make marbles. “If you press -your dough hard it will never bake light in the world.” - -[Illustration: TWO INQUIRING FACES HANGING OVER THE BREAD-PAN] - -“You mean de hot won’t make it grow big?” - -“Yes.” - -“Datzh too baddy. It’h awful too baddy,” said Toddie “Dere won’t be as -much of ’em to eat. Tell you what--put some powder in it to help the -uvvr swelly stuff.” - -“I’m afraid that won’t do any good.” - -“Might twy it,” Toddie suggested. “Ah--h--h--Budgie’ makin’ some of my -buns baldheaded.” - -“What do you mean?” Mrs. Burton asked. - -“He’s takin’ de raisins off de tops of ’em, an’ dat makes ’em -baldheaded.” - -“I was only keepin’ ’em from lookin’ all alike,” explained Budge, -hastily putting the raisins where they could not be affected by any -future proceedings. “Don’t you see, Toddie, you’ll have two kinds of -buns now?” - -“Don’t want two kindsh,” cried Toddie. “I’ze a good mind to cut you -open an’ take dem heads back again.” - -Budge was reproved by his aunt, and Toddie was pacified by the removal -of raisins from his brother’s buns to his own. Then some of the little -pans were placed in the vacant space in the oven, and during the next -fifteen minutes Mrs. Burton was implored at least twenty times to see -if they weren’t almost done. When, finally baked, Toddie’s were as -small as bullets and about as hard. - -“Put some powder in de rest of dem,” pleaded Toddie. - -“It wouldn’t do the slightest bit of good,” said Mrs. Burton. - -Further entreaties led to a conflict between will and authority, after -which Toddie sulked and disappeared, carrying one of his precious pans -with him. When he returned the baking was over, and the oven-door was -open. - -“Izhe a-goin’ to bake dis uvver one any how,” said Toddie, putting -the single remaining pan into the oven and closing the door. “Say, -Aunt Alice,” he continued, his good, nature returning, “now fix dat -tea-party we was goin’ to have wif our own fings. You can come to the -table wif us if you want to.” - -“Only, don’t you think she ought to bring somethin’ with her?” asked -Budge. “That’ the way little boys’s tea-parties out of doors always -are.” - -Mrs. Burton herself rendered a satisfactory decision upon this question -by making a small pitcher of lemonade: the table was drawn as near the -door as possible, to avoid the heat of the room; Budge escorted his -aunt to the seat of honor, and, when all were seated, he asked: - -“Do you think these is enough things to ask a blessin’ over? Sometimes -we do it, an’ sometimes we don’t, ’cordin’ to how much we’ve got.” - -Mrs. Burton rapidly framed a small explanatory lecture on the principle -under-lying the custom of grace at meals; but whatever may have been -its merits the boys never had an opportunity of judging, for suddenly -a loud report startled the party, a piece of the stove flew violently -across the room and broke against the wall, the stove-lids shivered -violently and the doors fell open; the poker, which had lain on the -stove, danced frantically, and a small pan of some sort of fat, such -as some cooks have a fancy to be always doing something with but never -do it, was shaken over and its burning contents began to diffuse a -sickening odor. The cook dropped upon her knees, the party arose--Budge -roaring, Toddie screaming, and Mrs. Burton very pale, while the cook -gasped: - -“The wather-back’s busted!” - -Mrs. Burton disengaged herself from her clinging nephews and approached -the range cautiously. There was no sign of water and the back of the -range was undisturbed; even the fire was not disarranged. - -[Illustration: A LOUD REPORT STARTLED THE PARTY] - -“It isn’t the water-back,” said Mrs. Burton, “nor the fire. What could -it have been?” - -“An’ I belave, mum,” said the cook, “that ’twas the dhivil, savin’ -yer prisince; an’, saints presarve us! I ’ve heerd at home as how he -hated dese new ways of cookin’, because dheres no foine place for him -to sit in the corner of, bad luck to him! It was the dhivil, sure, mum. -Did iver ye schmell the loike av that?” - -Mrs. Burton snuffed the air, and in spite of the loathsome odor of -burning grease she detected a strong sulphurous odor. - -“An’ he went and tookted my last bun wif him too,” complained Toddie, -who had been cautiously approaching the oven in which he had placed -his pan. “Bad ole debbil! I fought he didn’t have noffin but roasted -peoples at hizh tea-parties!” - -The whole party was too much agitated and mystified to pursue their -investigations further. The fire was allowed to die out and Mrs. Burton -hurried up-stairs and to the front of the house with the children. - -Mr. Burton on his way home was met by his wife and nephews, and heard a -tale which had reached blood-curdling proportions. His descent to the -scene of the disaster was reluctantly consented to by his wife; but he -was unable to discover the cause of the accident, and he succeeded in -getting his hands shockingly dirty. He hurried to his bed-chamber to -wash them, and in a moment he roared from the head of the stairs: - -“Boys, which of you has been up here to-day?” - -There was no response for a moment; then Budge shouted: - -“Not me.” - -Mrs. Burton looked inquiringly at Toddie, and the young gentleman -averted his eyes. Then Mr. Burton hurried down-stairs, looked at both -boys and asked: “Why did you meddle with my powder-flask, Toddie?” - -“Why--why--why, Aunt Alice wouldn’t put no powder in my buns to make -’em light after I rolled ’em heavy--said ’twouldn’t do ’em no good. -But my papa says ’tain’t never no harm to try, so I dzust wented and -gotted some powder out of your brass bottle dat’s hanging on your gun, -an’ I didn’t say nuffin’ to nobody, ’cauzh I wanted to s’prise ’em. -An’ while I was waitin’ for it to get done, bad ole debbil came an’ -hookted it. Guesh it must have been real good else he wouldn’t have -done it, ’cauzh he’s such a smart fief he can steal de nicest fings he -wantsh--whole cakeshop windows full.” - -“How did you mix it with the dough?--how much did you take?” Mrs. -Burton demanded. - -“Didn’t mix it at all,” said Toddie; “dzush pourded it on de pan azh -full azh I could. You’d fink I’d have to, if you tried to eat one of -my buns dat didn’t have no powder in. Gwacious! wasn’t dey hard? I -couldn’t bite ’em a bit--I dzust had to swallow ’em whole.” - -“Umph!” growled Mr. Burton. “And do you know who the devil--the little -devil was that--” - -“Harry!” - -“Well, my dear, the truth appears to be this; your nephew----” - -“Your nephew, Mr. Burton.” - -“Well, my--our nephew, put into the oven this afternoon about enough -of gunpowder to charge a six-pounder shell, and the heat of the oven -gradually became too much for it.” - -Toddie had listened to this conversation with an air of anxious -inquiry, and at last timidly asked: - -“Wazhn’t it de right kind of powder? I fought it wazh, ’cauzh it makes -everyfing else light when it goezh off.” - -“Do you suppose your method of training will ever prevail against that -boy’s logic, my dear?” asked Mrs. Burton. “And if it won’t, what will?” - -“I won’t put so much in nexsht time,” said Toddie, “’cauzh ’tain’t no -good to twy a fing an’ den have de tryin’ stuff go an’ take de fing -all away from you an’ get so mad as to bweak stoves to bits an’ scare -little boysh an’ Aunt Alishes ’most to deff.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - -“Ow, Ow, OW!” was the réveillé of the Burton family on the next -morning, and it was sounded from the room of the juvenile guests. - -“Another fight, I suppose,” grunted Mr. Burton in his room, “and as -I’m dressed I might as well go and see which one was whipped and which -ought to be.” - -Arrived at his nephew’s room, Mr. Burton found Toddie curled up in the -middle of the bed sound asleep, and his brother with his eyes shut, but -wriggling restlessly. - -“What’s the matter, Budge?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“My side hurts, where I bunked it, stoppin’ in the gutter, when I slid -down the mountain,” drawled Budge. “An’ the hard part of the bed comes -up to it and hurts it. As soon as I find a soft part of the bed, the -hard part begins to come up through it and hurt me.” - -“Suppose you were to turn and lie on the other side?” - -“I--why--I--then--I--” stammered Budge, arising slowly and rubbing -his eyes, “then I wouldn’t have any soft parts to look for, an’ I -wouldn’t have anythin’ to do.” - -“Oh, no,” Mr. Burton muttered, turning abruptly and quitting the room; -“the faculty for hugging misery isn’t born in people; not at all! I’ll -have to tell this to our parson. A lot of good people that need it -might get a sound thrashing over somebody else’s shoulders.” - -At the breakfast table Budge ate quietly, but with characteristic -American industry, before he said: - -“Aunt Alice, too much tea isn’t good for people, is it?” - -“Oh, no! It’s very bad.” - -“And one cup is enough for pretty much every one, isn’t it?” - -“I think so.” - -“Sometimes my papa drinks three or four.” - -“That must be when he has a headache.” - -“Oh, yes, ’tis. People need more then, don’t they?” - -“Yes, indeed!” - -“Well, don’t you think a sideache is as bad as a headache?” - -Mrs. Burton guessed the sequel, but refrained from replying. - -“An awful sideache,” Budge continued, “when a little boy’s side has -been bumped real hard by a great big mountain side.” - -Mrs. Burton bit her upper lip and reached for Budge’s mug, which the -young man accommodatingly pushed toward her, saying: - -“And I think when it’s a little boy that’ got to drink it ’cause he’s -sick, there ought to be lots an’ lots of sugar in it, to keep it from -being too strong.” - -[Illustration: “TOO MUCH TEA ISN’T GOOD FOR PEOPLE, IS IT?”] - -Budge’ mug was filled according to his liking, Mr. Burton’s eyes -dancing over it so busily that they could not stop when Mrs. Burton -accidentally detected them. A few moments of adult silence was the -natural result, and the boys improved the opportunity to disappear -without being questioned; after which Mr. Burton, starting for the -city, gave shortly the monosyllable “No!” in reply to the question -whether he should bring anything home. - -Mrs. Burton found herself soon in the depth of another inspection of -her career as a manager of children, and began to realize that she -was as faulty in being too indulgent as she was in being too severe. -Recalling the many tricks of the children to overcome her rules, she -could not remember a single one at which they had not succeeded, and -the realization of this was as mortifying to her sense of duty as it -was to her pride. To be firm when her sense of humor was touched was -a phase of ability of which she found herself to be as destitute as -people usually are; but the existence of such a failing she had never -even imagined before, and it doubled her sense of responsibility -and--humility. - -But the latter quality soon was lost in one which comes more naturally, -and is always fully developed--pride. What wouldn’t she have given to -have that breakfast-scene to manage again? To think that she, who had -in every other department of life, discerned sly attempts afar off, -and successfully circumvented them, should have been outwitted by two -very small boys! Oh, for just one more attempt by either of them! Mrs. -Burton instinctively bit her lip until pain caused her to stop. Upon -this, at any rate, she was determined--she would not only prevent -her nephews accomplishing their artfully laid purposes, but she would -explain to them how dishonest such attempts were, and endeavor to shame -them into ingenuousness. - -At this instant the sound of a wordy altercation, momentarily growing -livelier, floated up from the kitchen windows, and Mrs. Burton started -to act as arbitrator. - -“We want it. That’s why,” was heard from Budge, as Mrs. Burton entered -the kitchen. - -“Want what?” asked the mistress of the house. - -“Why,” said Budge, his face lighting with the anticipation of -assistance close at hand, “we’ve found a big nest full of eggs in the -grass, a good way off, an’ we want to boil ’em and eat ’em, and I’ve -asked Bridget over an’ over again for a pail to boil ’em in, and all -she says is, ’Niver a bit.’” - -“Which she is perfectly right in saying,” said Mrs. Burton,” when, as -I assume from what I overheard as I came in, you did not tell her what -you wanted of the pail.” - -“Well, I couldn’t help remembering what you said to Uncle Harry the -other evening--that you had the most utter contempt for people that -always wanted to know about other people’s business. I don’t know what -’utter contempt’s means, but I thought, from the way you said it, you -meant folks who was always askin’ questions about what other folks was -doin’.” - -Mrs. Burton hastily took a small pail from a shelf and gave it -to Budge, who walked off while his aunt, recollecting her good -resolutions, retired and wept despairingly. The idea of letting two -small children eat a lot of eggs between meals! No one knew where they -were or how many eggs they had; probably they had built a fire where -no fire should be, and what damage they were threatening to property -and life only Heaven knew. She wished herself within the councils of -Heaven; she committed a dozen frightful heresies while she wondered, -but came back by necessity to the virtue of resignation, for how to -find her nephews would have puzzled a head more experienced than her -own in the ways of small boys. - -[Illustration: “WHEN WE COOKED ’EM, WHAT DO YOU THINK?”] - -Her morning was spent in vague attempts to do something, and it was -with satisfaction that she beheld her two nephews approaching by a -road which led through woods and fields. The borrowed pail was not -visible, but Mrs. Burton did not notice its absence. Toddie dropped -dejectedly upon a large stone in the back yard, and Budge sauntered -into the sitting-room with the air of a man of the world who had -squeezed life’s orange and found it juiceless. - -“You’re safely back, are you?” asked Mrs. Burton, anxious to know what -had happened, but fearing to ask. - -“Oh, yes, we’re back, but that don’t do us any good.” - -“Why, what can be the matter with my dear little Budge?” - -“A good deal,” sighed Budge. “There’ some awful funny things in this -world, Aunt Alice, an’ they ain’t nice either.” - -“Tell me all about them, dear.” - -“Well, I was awful disappointed to-day. We found sixteen eggs in a -nest, an’ I came all the way home to get somethin’ to cook ’em in, -an’ I carried some salt an’ pepper with me to help ’em to taste nice, -an’ when we cooked ’em, what do you think? There was a little chicken -inside of each of ’em!” - -“Dis--gusting!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. - -“I know it is,” said Budge; “an’ I guess you’d have thought so more -yet if you’d been there when we opened ’em. You know how nice eggs -smell when you open ’em? Well, those eggs didn’t even smell good a bit.” - -“Let’s talk of something else, Budge,” said Mrs. Burton, instinctively -raising her handkerchief to her nose. - -“But I ain’t through yet,” said Budge. “I want to know why the little -chickens didn’t come out of their shell to their mamma, instead of -waiting to bother us?” - -“Because you scared their mamma away from them, I suppose, when you -found the nest.” - -“Why, no, we didn’t. She just went away. We said ‘Chick, chick, -chick!’s to her, an’ she just ran around an’ cackled, so we s’posed -she’d got through with the nest, and we took what was in it to keep ’em -from bein’ spoiled. Papa says eggs always spoil when they lie out in -the sunshine. What do you s’pose that poor hen mamma’ll think when she -comes walkin’ along that way some day an’ sees all her dear little -children lyin’ around mussed up in the grass?” - -“She will probably think that some meddlesome little boys have -been along that way, and haven’t cared for anything or anybody but -themselves.” - -Budge looked up quickly into his aunt’ face, but finding neither humor -nor sympathy there he sighed deeply and started to rejoin his brother. - -“Budge!” said Mrs. Burton. - -The child arrested his steps, and looked back inquiringly. - -“When you want anything, as, for instance, that pail to boil eggs in, -the proper way to do is to ask for it honestly and if some grown person -refuses to give it to you, you should be satisfied with the reasons -they give and make no trouble about it. You ought to love what is right -so much that you will be ashamed to get around it in some underhand -way.” - -“Why, ’tain’t any underhand way to say just what I think, is it?” Budge -asked. “Papa says folks ought always to be honest, and say just exactly -what they mean, an’ I’m sure I always do it, but I like to say things -the way that I think folks listen to ’em best. Ain’t that the way that -you do?” - -Mrs. Burton could not say “No,” and would not say “Yes,” so she walked -off and left her nephew master of the field, from which he himself soon -retired in response to repeated shouts of “Budgie!” from his brother. - -“Oh, Budgie,” exclaimed Toddie, as the former rejoined him,” izhe got -him! Oh, izhe got him! Ain’t you glad?” - -“Who you got?” - -“Got Terry!” exclaimed Toddie. “Got doggie Terry!” - -“Ow!” shouted Budge, clapping his hands and dancing about. “That’s the -nicest thing I ever heard of! Just won’t we have fun? How did you catch -him?” - -“Why, he wazh asleep, an’ I dzust tied a skring to his collar, an’ -tied de uvver end to a little tree, an’ dere he is. See him?” - -The brothers moved towards the dog; the doomed animal, after one -frantic tug at his bonds, recognized the inevitable and shrank -whimperingly against the tree. - -“Poor doggie’s sick, Tod,” said Budge. “We’ll have to play doctor to -him an’ make him well. I think he ought to go to bed, don’t you?” - -“Yesh,” said Toddie, “an’ have a night-gown on, like we do when we’s -sick.” - -“That’s so. You run an’ get yours for him. He needs a little one, you -know. I guess you’d better take off your shoes, so’ not to disturb Aunt -Alice.” - -Toddie cast his shoes and vanished, returning speedily with a robe in -which the dog Terry, not without much remonstrance, was soon enveloped; -after which Budge lifted him tenderly in his arms, saying,-- - -“His night-gown hangs down an awful lot, I think. We’d better pin up -the bottom part, like nurse did for the sister-baby the other day.” - -“Hazhn’t got no pins,” said Toddie. - -“Then we’ll tie it up with a string. Besides, when it’s tied up he -can’t get his foots out, an’ forget what a poor little sick doggie he -is.” - -In another moment the superabundant skirts were folded up and tied -tightly around the poor animal’s body, while Toddie, who was having -great trouble to hold the stout little beast, exclaimed: - -“Gwacious! the fwont end of him is awful well! See how it keeps not -keepin’ still. I don’t fink his night-gown collar looksh very nysh, -does you?” - -“No,” said Budge,” and he’ll go right out of it if we don’t make it -look nicer. I’ll put string around that too--there! I want to know if -anybody ever saw a lovelier-lookin’ sick dog than that? Where’ll we put -him to bed now?” - -“Let’s wock him,” Toddie suggested. “Datsh what we likes when we’s -sick.” - -“Then we got to take him in the house,” said Budge, “’cause there ain’t -any way of makin’ believe rockin’-chair. Come on!” - -Quietly the couple sneaked into the house and up to their room. Then -Budgie resigned his precious burden a moment to Toddie’ care while he -went in search of a rocking-chair, with which he shortly returned. - -“There!” said he, taking the invalid and seating himself, “this is -something like playin’ doctor. But I wonder what kind of medicine he -ought to have?--pills or powders?” - -“Or running stuff out of a bottle?” suggested Toddie. - -“That’s so,” said Budge. “I guess it ’pends on what kind of medicine -we’ve got. We might make him some nice pills out of soap.” - -“I know,” said Toddie, going into the closet, bringing from a corner an -old winter cloak trimmed with beads, and picking some of the beads from -it; “these is splendid for pills. I took some of ’em de uvver day when -I wazsh playin’ doctor an’ sick boy too, an’ dey didn’t taste bad a -bit.” - -“All right,” said Budge, “pick some off.” His order was obeyed, and -soon the beads were being carefully dropped, one by one, down the dog’s -throat, Budge opening the animal’s mouth with finger and thumb as he -had seen his father do. Soon, however, the dog’s jaws closed tightly. - -“I want to make him well,” said Toddie. “I ain’t doctored him a bit -yet.” - -“Well, I hardly know what you can do for him,” said Budge, “for he -won’t take any more pills. Perhaps there’s a sore place on his head -somewhere that you might put a stickin’-plaster on; but you haven’t got -any plaster. Oh, I’ll tell you what; you can get a postage-stamp out of -Uncle Harry’s desk--that’ll do for a stickin’-plaster first-rate.” - -“I wantsh to wock him,” said Toddie, “’ides doct’rin’ him.” - -“I’m afraid ’twon’t be best to move him just now,” said Budge, scanning -the face of the patient with solicitude. - -“I tell you what,” said Toddie, with the air of a man to whom had come -a direct inspiration “letsh stop makin’ b’lieve for a minute, till I -get hold of him; den he can be made into a sick boy again.” - -“All right,” said Budge, though evidently against his will. “I s’pose -I’ve got to, so that all the doctors get a chance at him. But say, -papa says, mixin’ doctors kills sick folks. Don’t you think we’d -better talk it all over again? ’Twould be dreadful if Uncle Harry’s -dear little dog was made dead, you know.” - -“All right,” said Toddie, “an’ I’ll hold him while we talk about it. -I won’t give him a single bittie of medshin ’til we know dzust what he -ought to have.” - -“Mebbe different people’s arms make a difference to sick folks,” -suggested Budge, holding the patient still more tenderly, and oblivious -to Toddie’s outstretched arms. - -“Dzust see how sad he looks at you!” said Toddie. “I fink his eyes is -a-sayin’, ‘Oh, I’ll die if dat dear Doctor Toddie don’t nurse me.’ I -shouldn’t fink you could be so dreadful cruel, Budgie.” - -Budge reluctantly relinquished the patient, on whom Toddie bestowed a -squeeze so affectionate that the dog howled piteously, and struggled to -free himself. - -“There!” said Budge,” what did I tell you. You’re the kind of doctor -that don’t agree with him, you see.” - -“’Tain’t me,” said Toddie. “I guesh it’ de medshin takin’ effec’. Dem -beads--pills, I mean--can’t get into his bonesh an’ mushels wifout -skwatchin’ him.” - -“I ’pect that’s ’cause we forgot to give ’em to him in somethin’ nice, -like papa gives us our medicine.” - -[Illustration: BUDGE AND TODDIE PLAYING DOCTOR] - -“Letsh give him somefin’ nysh now!” said Toddie, “Mebbe it can find -de medshin, an’ dey’ll go along nysh togevver, dzust like two little -budders.” - -“All right. What’ll it be?” - -“Cake.” - -“Who’ll ask Aunt Alice for it?” Budge asked. “I guess you’d better; I -did, last time we wanted cake. Anyhow, I was getting it without askin’, -an’ I promised her I’d always ask after that.” - -“Den you ought to begin, right stwaight away,” said Toddie, “elsh mebbe -you’d forget. I know what you wantsh! You wants me to ask so’s you can -get poor sick baby again while I go.” - -“Well,” said Budge, somewhat abashed, “I suppose I’ll have to do it.” - -He departed, and returned within two or three minutes with a large -piece of fruit cake and a radiant countenance. - -“I tell you, Tod, just don’t folks get paid for bein’ good? I was -going down to ask Aunt Alice, just as good as could be, and then I -couldn’t find her anywhere in the house, so there wasn’t anythin’ to -do but go get the cake myself. I don’t believe we’d have got such a big -piece, either, if she’d been there; now I know what that big thing on -the Sunday-school wall means, ‘Wirtue is its own reward.’” - -“Gwacious Peter!” exclaimed Toddie, extending his hand for the cake; -“we dassent give him all dat! ’Twould make him dweam dweadful fings.” -Here Toddie put the cake to the dog’s mouth, and the animal eagerly -bit at it. “Goodnish! I forgot dat dogs could open moufs bigger dan -babies. I fink he’s got more now dan’ going to agree wif him. G’way!” -continued Toddie, as the dog again snapped at the cake. “We’s got to -put dis where he can’t see it, ’less he’ll be cryin’ for it all de -time.” And Toddie hastily crowded a large portion of the remainder into -his own mouth. - -“Oh--h--h!” exclaimed Budge, moving to the rescue of the remainder of -the cake. “You ain’t took no medicine, an’ you’ll dream of more cows -than you ever saw. Give me it!” - -“Um--m--m--ugh--mow--moo-um--guh!” mumbled Toddie with difficulty, as -he tightened his grasp on the remainder of the cake. - -“Oh, give it to me, Tod!” pleaded Budge. “I’ll eat it, and then I’ll -dream ’bout the same cows that you do. Don’t you know how often you -wish I’d dream the same things you do, and get mad ’cause I don’t?” - -Toddie indulged in some spasmodic final gulps, coughed violently, and -said: - -“It’s dwefful to dweam about cows, an’ I loves you, ’cauzh you’s my -dee budder Budgie, an’ I don’t want you to dweam dwefful fings.” -Here Toddie hastily crammed most of the remainder of the cake into his -mouth, and handed the rest to his brother, saying: - -“That’ll make--you--dweam ’bout two or--or free cows, an’ so it’ll let -you get into de dweam wifout such drefful times as Izh got to have.” - -Budge might, perhaps, have recognized in fitting terms this evidence -of brotherly forethought, but his mouth found other occupation for a -moment. Meanwhile, the patient was wriggling; by a desperate effort he -freed himself from Toddie’s embrace, and fell upon the floor, where he -rolled frantically about with many contortions and howls. - -“Oh, he’s got a convulsion! I guess he must be havin’ a stomach tooth -come,” said Budge. “What can we do?” - -“Pallygollic,” Toddie suggested. - -“We ain’t got none,” said Budge. “Tell you what. Let’s make b’lieve -he’s a dog a minute, an’ throw water on him. That’ what they do to -dogs in fits.” - -“Den we’d get Aunt Alice’s new carpet all wet,” said Toddie. “Let’s put -him in de bafftub.” - -“Just the thing!” said Budge, picking up the animal while Toddie ran -before and turned on the water. The dog was dropped into the tub, where -he naturally redoubled his efforts to free himself; noting which, Budge -remarked: - -“Say, Tod, it’s hot water they set babies in when the tooths bother -’em. We’ll make b’lieve he’s a baby again, and turn on t’other faucet.” - -Toddie quickly opened the hot-water faucet. - -“There--he’s gettin’ better,” said Budge, observing the animal with -professional closeness. “I guess he can come out now. OW!--that water’s -awful hot! How are we goin’ to get him out?” - -Toddie leaned over the edge of the tub and seized the dog by the head. -The animal struggled violently. Toddie redoubled his exertions, lost -his balance, and tumbled headlong into the tub himself, from which he -speedily scrambled, howling violently, while Budge snatched the animal -and landed him on the bathroom floor. - -“Oh, de--oh!” cried Toddie. - -“Does it hurt you awful, dear little brother?” asked Budge tenderly. - -“No! De hurtzh gone off of me, but I gotted a lot of water in my -mouf, and it washed out all de taste of de cake. I fink it’ too -good-for-nuffin mean for anyfing.” - -“Well, I guess you’d better go sit out in the sun and dry yourself,” -said Budge, “and change the poor doggie’s clothes for him.” - -“Wantsh my clozhezh tschanged,” sobbed Toddie. - -“Come on, then,” said Budge, leading the way back to his own room, and -dragging the bundle of wet dog behind him. “There!” said he, closing -the door, “you dress yourself and I’ll fix the dog.” - -Carefully untying the strings that confined the animal, but taking the -precaution to tie one end to Terry’s collar and the other to a chair, -he removed the night-gown, brought a brush, comb, and bottle of cologne -from his aunt’s room, and began to brush the dog’ coat, pouring on -cologne without stint. The animal was too grateful to be on his feet -again to offer any serious remonstrance, until suddenly Budge poured -considerable cologne upon his head; the liquid found its way into -Terry’s eyes, and the spirits put the brute in such pain that he began -to dash frantically about the room, dragging the light chair after -him. Budge had left the door open, and through this dashed Terry, and -down the stairs. The top of the chair struck the stair-rail, and at -once resolved itself into its original parts; the remainder flew down -the steps after the dog, and executed a rapid semicircle in air in the -lower hall as the dog flew around the newel post and encountered a -handsome cabinet hat-rack on the way, to the great damage of the polish. - -[Illustration: DOWN THE STAIRS, DASHED TERRY] - -Then, still obeying the inexorable demands of the string, whose other -end was attached to the collar of the dog, it meandered through the -parlor, leaving a leg with the piano pedal as a memento of a trifling -difference, attempted to ascend the chimney through the fireplace but -succeeded only so far as to seriously compromise the positions of the -andirons, lodged between the legs of an antique table to the complete -prostration of the table itself, and leaving the seat of the chair -among the table’s varied contents, struck a jardinière, which came down -with a ceramic crash, flew to the dining-room, into a chair, upon and -across the table, taking with it a cover with which for a moment or two -it was seriously mixed, and went down the kitchen stairs, where it met -Mrs. Burton returning from a conference with the greengrocer. As the -chair was one of special lightness and exceeding cost, Mrs. Burton was -naturally desirous of interviewing Terry; but the animal had evidently -formed plans which he did not intend should be thwarted, so with a -vicious snap he eluded her, dashed through the kitchen and sought the -shady solitude of the forest. - -Intuition and experience combined to suggest to Mrs. Burton the -original causes of Terry’s excitement; so, waiting only a few moments, -that she might be perfectly calm and righteously judicial, she started -in search of the culprits. They were not in their room, though a heap -of wet clothes and a general displacement of everything proved that -they had been there since the chambermaid had put the room in order. A -further search disclosed Toddie upon Mrs. Burton’s own bed, so soundly -asleep that she had not the heart to wake him. Promptly assuming that -Budge was the only culprit, she continued her search, and found him -leaning out of a window in a little observatory on the top of the -house. The rustle of his aunt’s dress aroused him, and, bending upon -her a look of exquisite yet melancholy sensitiveness, he said: - -“Aunt Alice, everybody must die, mustn’t they?” - -“Yes,” replied Mrs. Burton, “and if you had paid the debt of nature -before destroying my pretty chair your earthly influence might have -been less injurious than it has been this morning.” - -“But, Aunt Alice,” said Budge, absorbed in his own thoughts, “do you -see that graveyard way off yonder? It’s awful full of dead folks, ain’t -it?” - -“Very,” said Mrs. Burton; “but what they have to do with a ruined chair -I am unable to see.” - -“Well, what I want to know,” said Budge, still oblivious to everything -but the matter that was occupying his mind--“what I want to know is, -who’s goin’ to throw flowers into the last man’ grave, an’ who’s -goin’ to make the hole that he’s put into? What if he should be me? -I’d feel awful bothered to know how I’d have any funeral at all. I -know what I’d do--I’d just pray the Lord to take me straight up to -heaven, like he did with the good Elijah. Say, Aunt Alice, what drawed -the chariot that Elijah went up in? Did them ravens do it that used to -bring him his lunch?” - -“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Burton, “but no chariot would ever have come -for him if he had been in the habit of breaking up chairs and tying -pieces of them to dogs.” - -“Why,” said Budge, beginning to comprehend the drift of his aunt’s -remarks, “I didn’t tie any piece of any chair to any dog. I tied all -of Terry to a chair, and was bein’ as nice to him as you ever was to -me, an’ all of a sudden he ran away with the whole of the chair. You -remember that story in the Bible about some bad devils goin’ into a -lot of pigs an’ makin’ ’em jump over the side of a mountain an’ into -the ocean? Well, I think some of them same chaps must have got into -Terry.” - -[Illustration: “WHY AUNT ALICE! HOW DID YOU UPSET THAT TABLE?”] - -Mrs. Burton’s faith in this demonological theory was not strong, -but she felt that her wrath had deserted her, so to escape further -humiliation she descended to the parlor. The scene which presented -itself to her gaze was one to which womanly language could not do -justice, and her hurried attempts to repair the damage were not -sufficient to prevent the reawakening of her anger. While still in the -depths of her indignant despair, her nephew Budge entered the room and -exclaimed honestly: - -“Aunt Alice, how did you upset that table and break that handsome great -big vase of make-believe flowers?” - -Mrs. Burton instinctively rose to her feet, assumed a conventional -attitude of Lady Macbeth, and shook a forefinger at Budge in a menacing -manner that caused the child to shudder, as she uttered the single -word-- - -“Tomorrow!” - - - - -CHAPTER X - - -“The beginning of the end!” was the remark with which Mr. Burton broke -a short silence at his breakfast-table, on the last day of the time for -which his little visitors had been invited. - -Mrs. Burton looked meek and made no reply. - -“Budders,” said Mr. Burton, addressing his nephews, “do you feel -reconstructed?” - -“Huh?” asked Budge. - -“Do you feel mentally and morally reconstructed?” repeated the uncle. - -“Reconwhichted?” asked Budge. - -“That’s an awful big wyde,” remarked Toddie, through a mouthful of -oatmeal porridge. “It’s like what the minister says in chych sometimes, -an’ makes me want to play around in the seat.” - -“Reconstructed; made over again,” explained Mr. Burton. - -“Why, no,” said Budge, after looking at his hands and feeling for his -stomach, as if to see if any radical physical change had taken place -without his knowledge. “Maybe we’re a little bigger, but we can’t see -ourselves where we grow.” - -“Don’t you feel as if you wanted to see that baby sister again?” asked -Mrs. Burton, endeavoring to change the subject. “Don’t you want to go -back to her and stay all the time?” - -“I don’t,” said Toddie, “’cauzh dere ain’t no dog at our house, an’ -tryin’ to catch dogs is fun, ’cept when dey never want to be catched -at all, like Terry is lotsh of de time.” - -“I mean, haven’t you learned, since you’ve been here, to be a great -deal better than you ever were before?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“I guesh so,” Toddie replied. “I’zhe said more prayersh an’ sung more -little hymns dan I ever did in all my life before. An’ I ain’t pulled -off any more hind hoppers from gwasshoppers sinsh Aunt Alice told me it -wazh bad. I only pulls off front hoppers now. Dey’zh real little, you -know--dere’ only a little bittie of ’em to feel hurted.” - -“How is it with you, Budge?” asked Mr. Burton. “Do you feel as if you -had learned to act from different motives.” - -“What’s a motive?” asked Budge; “anythin’ like a loco-motive? I never -feel like them, ’xcept when I run pretty hard; then I puff like -everythin’, only steam don’t come out of me, but I always think there’s -an engine inside of me, goin’ punk! punk! like everything. Papa says -it’s only a heart--a little bit of a boy’s heart, but if that’s all, I -should think a big man’ heart could pull a whole train of cars.” - -“You haven’t learned to bear in mind the subject of conversation. But -have you become able to comprehend the inner significance of things?” - -“Things inside of us, do you mean?” - -“Like oatmeal powwidge?” Toddie suggested. - -“Have you realized that a master mind has been exerting a reformatory -influence upon you?” - -“Izh master mind an’ ’must mind’s de same fing?” asked Toddie. “We -wasn’t doin’ noffin’ ’cept eatin’ our brekspups. Don’t see what we’s -got to mind about.” - -“Have you always unhesitatingly obeyed your aunt’s commands, moved -thereunto by a sense of her superiority by divine right?” - -“Now, Harry!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, who during this conversation had -been making mute appeals which her husband could not have resisted had -he seen them, and knowing of the existence of which he had carefully -kept his eyes averted from her face. - -“If you don’t stop tormenting those poor children with stupid sections -of dictionary you yourself shall realize my superiority by divine -right, for I’ll take them up-stairs and away from you.” - -“Only one more question, my dear,” said Mr. Burton, “and I’ll have -done. I want only to ask the boys if they’ve noticed any conflicts of -heredity, and, if so, which side has triumphed?” - -“I guess you are tryin’ to play preacher, like Tod said,” remarked -Budge. - -“Oh!” said Mr. Burton, blushing a little under a merry laugh from his -wife. “Well, how does it affect you?” - -“It makes me feel like I do in church when I wish Sunday-school time -would hurry up,” said Budge. - -“Me too,” assented Toddie. - -“You can run away and play now,” said Mrs. Burton, seeing that the -children’s plates were empty. - -The boys departed, the dog Terry apparently leading the way, yet being -invisible when the children reached the open air. - -“You needn’t have humiliated me before the children,” said Mrs. Burton. - -Mr. Burton hastened to make the “amende honorable” peculiar to the -conjugal relation and said: - -“Don’t fear, my dear. They didn’t understand.” - -“Oh, didn’t they?” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “I wish all my adult friends -had as quick perceptions as those boys. They may not understand big -words, but tones and looks are enough for them.” - -“Why?” said Mr. Burton, “they scarcely looked up from their plates.” - -“Never mind,” replied the lady, delighted at an opportunity to reassert -her superiority in at least one particular. “Children--boys, are more -like women than like men. Their unblunted sensibilities are quick; -their intuition is simply angelic. Would that their other qualities -were also so perfect.” - -“I’m very sorry, my dear,” said Mr. Burton, temporarily subjugated, -“that I said a word to them, and when you are ready to kneel upon the -stool of repentance I’ll depart and leave you alone.” - -“You’ll have no occasion to go,” said Mrs. Burton. “I’ve confessed -already--to them, and a single confession is enough. I rather like the -operation, when, for my reward, I receive sympathy instead of sarcasm.” - -“Again, I ask forgiveness,” said Mr. Burton; “and having made a -fellow-penitent of myself, can’t I have good in return for my evil, and -know what a fellow-sufferer has learned from experience?” - -“Just this,” said Mrs. Burton; “that nobody is fit to take the care of -children excepting the children’s own parents.” - -Mr. Burton dropped his fork and exclaimed: - -“My dear, that’s better than an experience. It’s a revelation.” - -Mrs. Burton regained her pleasantness of countenance and said: - -“I think that only one of kindred blood can comprehend an adult----” - -“Unless modest enough to go out of self for a little while,” suggested -Mr. Burton. - -Mrs. Burton opened her eyes very wide and dropped her lip a little, but -recovered herself to finish her sentence by “And I think it is ever so -much harder to comprehend children, with their imperfect natures that -never develop harmoniously, and that can but seldom express themselves -intelligently.” - -“I never noticed that the boys were at a loss to express themselves, -when they wanted anything,” said Mr. Burton. - -“That sounds just like a man,” said Mrs. Burton, fully herself again. -“As if children had no desires and yearnings excepting for material -things! What do you suppose it means when Budge sits down in a corner, -goes into a brown study, and, when asked what the matter is, drawls -‘Nothin’!’s in a tone that indicates that a very considerable something -is puzzling his young head? What does it mean when Toddie asks his -half-funny, half-pathetic questions about matters too great for his -comprehension, and looks as wistful as ever after he is answered? Do -you suppose they care for nothing but food and play?” - -Mr. Burton felt humbled, and his looks evinced the nature of his -feeling. - -“You are right, little woman. I wish I might have consulted you before -I took the boys in hand last summer.” - -“And I’m very glad you didn’t,” said Mrs. Burton; “for you did a -great deal better with them than you could have done if I had been -your adviser. There is some of the same blood in both of you, and you -succeeded in many points where I have blundered. Oh, if I had but -known it all before they came! How much I might have spared them--and -myself!” - -Mr. Burton hastened to extend to his wife some mute sympathy. - -“They’re going to-day,” said Mrs. Burton, finding something in her eyes -that required the attention of her kerchief--“just as I’ve learned what -I should be to them! They’re angels, in spite of their pranks, and it’s -always so with angels’s visits; one never discovers what they are until -they spread their wings to depart.” - -“This particular pair of angels can be borrowed for an extra day, I -suppose, if you desire it!” suggested Mr. Burton. - -“I declare,” said Mrs. Burton, “that’s a brilliant idea! I’ll go tell -Helen that I don’t think she’s yet fit to have them back again.” - -“And I,” said Mr. Burton, preparing to go to the city, “will try to -persuade Tom into the same belief, though I know he’ll look like a man -being led to execution.” - -The Burtons left the house together a few minutes later, and the boys -returned soon after. Being unable to find their aunt, they descended -to the kitchen, and made a formal demand upon the cook for saucers, -spoons, sugar and cream. - -“An’ fhot are yees up to now?” asked Bridget. - -“You’ll see, after you give us the things,” said Budge. - -“Deysh the reddesht, biggesht ones I ever saw anywheresh,” Toddie -exclaimed. - -“I don’t want ye to be takin’ the things way off to nobody but the -dhivil knows where,” said Bridget. “Fhot if yees should lose one of the -shpoons an’ the misthress ’ud think I sthole it?” - -“Oh, we won’t go anywheres but ’cept under the trees in the back yard,” -pleaded Budge. “An’ there’s all the nice berries spoilin’ now while -you’re botherin’ about it. My papa says berries ought always to be -eaten just when they’re picked.” - -“Av it’s only berries, I s’pose yees can have the things,” muttered -Bridget, bringing from a closet a small tray, and covering it with the -desired articles. - -“Give us another saucer, an’ we’ll bring you some,” said Budge, -“’cause you’re nice to us. We’ll need more sugar, though, if we’re -goin’ to do that.” - -In the presence of flattery Bridget showed herself only a woman. She -replaced the teacup of sugar with a well-filled bowl; she even put a -few lumps on top of the powdered article which filled the bowl, and as -the boys departed she remarked to the chambermaid that “that bye Budge -is a rale gintleman. I’ve heard as how his father’s folks came from the -ould counthry, an’ mark me words, Jane, they’re from the nobility.” - -A few minutes later Mrs. Burton emerged from the sick-room of her -sister-in-law. She had meant to stay but a moment, but Mrs. Lawrence’s -miniature had, as a special favor, been placed in Mrs. Burton’s arms, -and it was so wee and helpless, and made such funny little noises, -and blinked so inquiringly, and stretched forth such a diminutive -rose petal of a hand, that time had flown in apprehension, and sent -the nurse to recapture the baby and banish the visitor. And Mrs. -Burton was sauntering leisurely homeward, looking at nothing in -particular, touching tenderly with the tip of her parasol the daisies -and buttercups that looked up to her from the roadside, stopping even -to look inquiringly upon a solitary ewe, who seemed solicitous for the -welfare of a lamb which playfully evaded her. Suddenly Mrs. Burton -heard a howl, a roar, and a scream inextricably mixed. She immediately -dropped all thought of smaller beings, for she recognized the tones of -her nephews. A moment later, the noise increasing in volume all the -while, both boys emerged from behind a point of woods, running rapidly, -and alternately howling and clapping their hands to their mouths. Mrs. -Burton ran to meet them, and exclaimed: - -“Boys, do stop that dreadful noise. What is the matter?” - -“Ow--um--oh!” screamed Budge. - -“Wezh been--ow!--eatin’ some--some--ow!--some pieces of de bad -playsh,” said Toddie, “wif, oh, oh!--cream an’ sugar on ’em. But dey -wazh dzust as hot as if noffin’ was on ’em.” - -“Come back and let aunty see about it,” said the mystified woman, but -Budge howled and twitched away, while Toddie said: - -“Wantzh papa an’ manma! Deyzh had all little boy bovvers an’ knowsh -what to do. Wantsh to get in our ice-housh an’ never go--ow!--out of -it.” - -The screaming of the children had been heard farther than Mrs. Burton -imagined it could be, for a sound of heavy and rapid footsteps -increased behind her and, turning, she beheld the faithful Mike, Mr. -Lawrence’ gardener-coachman. - -“Fhot is it, dharlin’?” asked Mike, looking sharply at each boy, and -picking a red speck from the front of Toddie’s dress. “Murther alive! -red peppers!” - -Mike dashed across the street, vaulted a fence, and into an inclosed -bit of woodland, ran frantically about among the trees, stopped in -front of one and attacked it with his knife, to the astonishment of -Mrs. Burton, who imagined the man had lost his senses. A few seconds -later he returned with a strip of bark, which he cut into small pieces -as he ran. - -“Here, ye dharlin’ little divils,” said he, cramming a piece of the -bark into each boy’ mouth, “chew that. It’s slippery elm; it’ll sthop -the burnin’. Don’t the byes play that trick on the other byes at school -often an’ often, an’ hasn’t me sister’s childher been nearly murthered -by it? An’ fhot ought your father do to yees for throyin’ to shwally -such thrash? Oh, but wouldn’t I loike to foind the dhivils that put -yees up to it! Who was they? Tell me, so I can sind them afther their -father, where it’s hotter than pepper.” - -[Illustration: A RED PEPPER EXPERIENCE] - -“How did you come to eat red peppers?” asked Mrs. Burton, as the -children escaped slowly from their pain. - -“Why, a boy once told us they was strawberries,” cried Budge, “an’ -to-day we saw a lot where men was spoilin’ a garden to build a house, -an’ we asked ’em if we could have ’em, an’ they said yes, an’ we -brought ’em all back in a piece of paper, an’ didn’t bite one of ’em, -’cause we wanted to eat ’em all in a littel tea-party like gentlemen, -and the first one I chewed--ow! That poor rich man in the fire--I know -just how he felt when he begged Abraham to have his tongue cooled with -a drop of water.” - -“Poor old rich man didn’t have all de fire in hizh mouf, ’pectin’ dat -’twazh goin’ to be strawbewwies,” sobbed Toddie. - -“There wasn’t no dear old Mike to go an’ get him slippery elm, either,” -said Budge. “Soon’s we come back home to stay, Mike, I’m goin’ to put -dirt in the stable-pump, just to be real good about stoppin’ when you -tell me to.” - -“An’ I,” said Toddie, “’zh goin’ to make you a present all alone by -myseff. I don’t know yet what it’ll be. I guess it’ll have to be a -’prise. What would you like best?--a gold watch or a piece of peanut -candy?” - -Between two presents of such nearly equal value Michael, the -benefactor, found some difficulty in deciding, and he walked away with -that application of fingers to head which is peculiar to many persons -when in a quandary. Meanwhile Mrs. Burton led the children toward her -own house, saying: - -“What can we do to-day that can be extremely nice, little boys? Mamma -expects you home to-morrow, and Aunt Alice wants to make your last day -a very happy one.” - -“To-morrow!” exclaimed Budge, apparently oblivious to all else his aunt -had said. “I thought we were going home to-day!” - -“So you were, dear,” said Mrs. Burton; “but you didn’t seem to be in -any hurry, and I couldn’t bear to let you go so soon. Did you really -want to go to-day?” - -“Why, I’ve been thinkin’ about it an’ countin’ days till to-day ever -since we’ve come,” said Budge. “Sometimes it seemed as if I’d burst if -I couldn’t be back home again, but I tried to be real good about it, -’cause papa said ’twould be better for the sister-baby and mamma if we -stayed away. Sometimes in the night-time, I’ve cried because I wasn’t -in my own little bed.” - -“You poor dear boy,” said Mrs. Burton, stopping to kiss Budge, “why -didn’t you tell Aunt Alice when you were so unhappy?” - -“You couldn’t do me any good,” said Budge. “Nobody could but my -papa or mamma. An’ then I don’t like to tell what’ hurtin’ my -heart--somethin’ in my throat makes me hate to tell such things.” - -“Haven’t you had a pleasant time at our house? When you’ve not been -doing whatever you liked, haven’t Uncle Harry and I been trying to make -you happy?” - -“Oh, yes. But some folks know just what we like, and some other folks -know what they want us to like; and the first some folks are my papa -and mamma, an’ the other some folks are you an’ Uncle Harry. You’ve -done some real nice things for us, though, an’ I’m goin’ to ask mamma -to let us invite you to our house, an’ then I’ll show you how to take -care of little boys an’ make ’em happy!” - -“You come to vizhit at our housh,” said Toddie,” an you can have cake -between mealsh, an’ make mud-pies whenever you want to, no matter if -youzh got your very besht clozhezh on. An’ I won’t ever say ‘Don’t!’s -to you one single time!” - -“An’ you shall have your own mamma come every day to frolic an’ cut -up with you,” said Budge. “I wish you had a papa; we’d have him too!” - -“Aunt Alice,” said Budge, “how do big folks get along without papas and -mammas?” - -“I don’t know, I’m sure, dear,” said Mrs. Burton, remembering how -helpless she found herself when her husband first took her from beneath -her mother’s wing. - -“Don’t they ever have somethin’ to tell ’em, an’ then feel like -somebody else when they find they ain’t there to tell ’em to?” - -“I suppose some do,” said Mrs. Burton, recalling some periods of her -own life when she longed for a confidant who should be neither lover -nor friend. - -“Don’t you think maybe they look all around then, an’ think the nicer -things are the lonelier they are?” continued Budge. - -“Yes, dear,” replied Mrs. Burton, with a kiss. - -“Musht be awful not to have anybody to ask for pennies when youzh -lonesome an’ don’t know what else to do,” said Toddie. - -“An’ not to have anybody hold you to keep from kind o’s tumblin’ -to pieces when you’ve seen enough of everythin’, an’ done enough of -everythin’, an’ don’t know what’ goin’ to happen next, an’ wish it -wouldn’t happen at all,” said Budge. “Say, Aunt Alice, folks don’t -ever have to feel that way when they get to be angels, do they?” - -“No, indeed!” - -“Well, do you think it makes folks in heaven happy to have a -father--the Lord, you know, when there ain’t anythin’ to ask Him for? -If they’re happy the whole time, I don’t see when they can think about -how nice it is to have a heavenly papa. Do little angels ever have to -go away from home an’ stay a few days, an’ not see their father at -all?” - -“Mercy--no!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, with a shudder. “Where do you get -such ideas, Budge?” - -“Nowhere. I don’t get ’em at all--they get me, an’ don’t let go of me -until I think myself most to pieces, or else get somethin’ new to do -that makes me forget ’em.” - -Mrs. Burton mentally resolved to immediately find something new for -Budge to do, if only to keep him from leading her mind upon ground -which, being unknown to her, she assumed must be dangerous. Her anxiety -was not lessened when Toddie strayed into more active conversation. - -“Aunt Alish,” said he, “what does little boy angels do wif deir -pennies when dey get ’em? Ish dere candy stores up in hebben, and do de -folks dat keeps ’em give more for a penny dan dey do here?” - -“Pennies are of no use in heaven, Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, almost -frantic to find a way of escape from the pair of literalists, yet -remembering her longings of the early morning, to have the boys with -her that she might find her way to their hearts and lead them into her -own. - -“What? Not good for anyfin’?” asked Toddie. “Wouldn’t it be dweadful -den if I was to get to be an angel right now?--dere’h sixty-four -pennies in my savings bank.” - -“You can’t carry pennies to heaven, you silly boy!” exclaimed Budge. -“In a place where the streets are made of gold, you don’t s’pose -anybody cares for pennies, do you? I don’t b’lieve you could buy a -single stick of candy there for less than a dollar bill!” - -“If you little boys are so fond of candy,” said Mrs. Burton, in -desperation, “we will make a lot ourselves, after lunch.” - -“Oh, oh!” Budge exclaimed. “Can common folks like us make candy?” - -“But we are not common folks, Budge.” - -“I think we are,” said the boy, “when I think what lovely people -candy-makers must be.” - -“How much will we make?” asked Toddie. “Two pennies’s worth?” - -“Oh, yes. More than two little boys can eat in a day.” - -“Gwacious Peter!” Toddie exclaimed, “dat would be more dan a whole -candystore full! Come on! Don’t letsh eat any lunch at all, so’s to -have our tummuks all empty for de candy.” - -[Illustration: Making Candy] - -“I’ll bet I can walk faster than you can, Aunt Alice,” said Budge, -tugging at his aunt with one hand and pushing her with the other. - -“I can run faster dan bofe of you,” shouted Toddie. “Come on!” - -Mrs. Burton declined both challenges, so the boys went rapidly over the -course without her and ran frantically up and down the piazza until -their aunt joined them. - -“What are you goin’ to make it in, Aunt Alice?” shouted Budge, while -Mrs. Burton was yet a hundred yards away. - -“A saucepan.” - -“A washboiler would be better--two washboilersh!” suggested Toddie. - -“Now, do you want to go home to-day, Budge?” asked Mrs. Burton -mischievously. - -“I--well--I guess you’d better not remind me very much about it,” -replied Budge, “else maybe I will. What kind of candy is it goin’ to -be?” - -“Molasses.” - -“De stick kind, or de sticky?” asked Toddie. - -“Both,” replied the lady, ascending the steps. - -“Oh, goody, goody!” exclaimed Toddie, clutching at his aunt’s dress. “I -wants to kish you.” - -“An’ I want to give you an awful big hug,” said Budge. - -Mrs. Burton accepted these proffered tokens of esteem and afterward -spent two miserable hours in trying to pacify the boys until -lunch-time. They ate scarcely anything, and remonstrated so -persistently against their aunt’s appetite that the meal remained -almost untouched. Then the lady was escorted to the kitchen by her -nephews and there was an animated discussion as to the size of the -saucepan to be used, and the boys watched the pouring of the molasses -so closely that not a fly dared to assist. Then they quarreled for the -right to stir the odorous mass until Mrs. Burton was obliged to allot -them three-minute reliefs by the kitchen clock, and Budge declared that -his turns didn’t last more than a second, while Toddie complained that -they occupied two hours, and each boy had to assist at the critical -operation of “trying,” and they consumed what seemed to them long, -weary years in watching the paste cool itself. When, at last, Mrs. -Burton pronounced one panfull ready to “pull,” a deep sigh of relief -burst from each little chest. - -“This is the way to pull candy,” said Mrs. Burton, touching her fingers -lightly with butter, and then taking a portion of the paste from a pan -and drawing it into a string in the usual manner. “And here,” she said, -separating the smaller portions, “is a piece for each of you.” - -Budge carefully oiled his fingers as he had seen his aunt do, and -proceeded cautiously to draw his candy, but Toddie seized his portion -with both hands, raised it to his mouth, and fastened his teeth in it. -Mrs. Burton sprang at him in an instant. - -“Stop, Toddie--quick! It may fasten your teeth together so you can’t -easily open them.” - -Many were the inarticulate noises, all in a tone of remonstrance, that -Toddie made as his aunt forcibly removed the mass from his face. When -at last he could open his mouth he exclaimed: - -“Don’t want mine pulled! itsh too awful good the way it izh--you’ll -pull de good out, I’zh ’fwaid.” - -“You boys should have aprons,” said Mrs. Burton. “Budge, put down -your candy, run up-stairs and tell Jane to bring down two of Toddie’s -aprons.” - -Budge hurried up-stairs, forgetting the first half of his aunt’s -injunction. Returning, he had just reached the foot of the main stair, -when the door-bell rang. Hastily putting his candy down, he opened the -door and admitted two ladies, who asked for Mrs. Burton. - -“I guess she’s too busy makin’ candy to be bothered by any lady,” said -Budge, “but I’ll ask her. Sit down.” - -Ten minutes later, Mrs. Burton, by a concentration of effort peculiar -to woman, but which must ever remain a mystery to man, entered the -parlor in afternoon dress, and greeted her visitors. Both rose to meet -her, and with one of them rose also a rocking-chair with a cane seat. -This remained in mid-air only an instant, however, for the lady’s dress -had not been designed for the purpose of moving furniture; with a -sharp, ripping sound, like that of musketry file-firing afar off, her -skirt soon took the appearance of a train dress, heavily puffed at the -waist with fabric of another color. - -Both ladies endeavored to disengage her; Mrs. Burton turned pale and -then red as she discovered the cause of the accident, while Budge’s -voice was heard from the doorway saying: - -“Aunt Alice, have you seen my candy? I laid it down somewhere so’s to -let the ladies in, an’ now I can’t find it!” - -An indignant gesture by Mrs. Burton sent Budge away pouting and -grumbling and the chambermaid was summoned, the visitor’ dress was -repaired temporarily and the accident was being laughed away, when -from the kitchen there arose an appalling sound. It was compounded of -shrieks, yelps, and a peculiar noise as of something being thrown upon -the floor. - -The noise increased; there were irregular footfalls upon the -kitchen-stairs, and at last Toddie appeared, dragging by the collar the -dog Terry, from whose fore feet hung, by a slowly lengthening rope of -candy, one of the pans of the unpulled paste. - -“I fought if I gived him candy he would be nicer to me,” Toddie -explained,” so I chased him into a closet, an’ put the pan up to his -nose, an’ told him to help hisself. And he stuck his foot in, an’----” - -Further explanation was given by deeds, not words, for as Toddie spoke -the dog kicked violently with his hind feet, disengaged himself from -Toddie and started for the door, dragging and lengthening his sweet -bonds behind him upon the floor. Toddie shrieked and attempted to -catch him, stepped upon the candy-rope, found himself fastened to the -carpet, and burst into tears, while the visitors departed and told -stories which by the next afternoon had developed into the statement -that Mrs. Burton had been foolish enough to indulge her nephews in a -candy-pulling in her parlor and upon her new carpet. - -As for the boys, Budge ate some of his candy, and Toddie ate much of -everybodies, and had difficulty in saving a fragment for his uncle. And -when at night he knelt in spotless white to pray he informed Heaven -that now he understood what ladies meant when they said they had had a -real sweet time. - -[Illustration: Budge and Tody with Sunflower] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - “We’re goin’ home - We’re goin’ home - We’re goin’ home - To die no more.” - - -Sang Budge through the hall next morning, and he repeated the lines -over and over so many times that they at last impressed themselves upon -the mind of Toddie, who asked: - -“Budgie, izh you a-tellin’ de troof?” - -“What ’bout?” - -“Why, ’bout not dyin’. Don’t little boys hazh to die after goin’ to -live wif their uncles an’ aunts for a little while?” - -“Oh, of course they do, but I’m so happy I’ve got to sing somethin’; -the front part of it is troof, and that’s three times as big as the -other part, and I can’t think of any other song ’bout goin’ home.” - -“Datsh too baddy,” complained Toddie. “I fought you wazh tellin’ the -troof, an’ I wouldn’t never hazh to hazh a lot of dirt on my eyes, so -I couldn’t look up into de sky.” - -“Oh, you won’t have to be bothered that way,” said Budge. “When you -die your spirit goes up to heaven, an’ you can look straight down froo -the sky with your new eyes, an’ laugh at the old dirt that thinks it’ -keepin’ your old eyes shut up.” - -“Don’t want no new eyes! Eyes I’zh got izh good enough to see fings -wif.” - -“But just you think, Toddie,” reasoned Budge, “heaven-eyes can’t get -dust in ’em, or have to be washed, or be bothered with choo-choo smoke.” - -“Can’t smoke get in the windows of steam-cars up in hebben?” - -“Of course not! Not if everythin’ goin’ to be all right up there. -There ain’t no choo-choos in heaven anyhow. What does angels want of -choo-choos, I’d like to know, when they’ve got wings to fly with?” - -[Illustration: “WE’RE GOIN’s HOME”] - -“I’d never want all the choo-choos to go away, even if I had a fousand -wingsh,” said Toddie. “’Twould be such fun to fan myself wif my wings -when I was goin’ froo hot old tunnels.” - -“Tunnels can’t be hot in heaven,” explained Budge; “’cause they’re -uncomfortable, an’ nothin’ can be uncomfortable in heaven. I guess -there ain’t any tunnels there at all. Oh, yes! I guess there’s little -bits of ones, just long enough to give little boys the fun of ridin’ -in and ridin’ out of ’em.” - -“Well, how’s you goin’ to ride in an’ out if dere ain’t no choo-choos -to pull de cars?” - -“Well, I’ll tell you, Tod, I guess that’s one of the things that the -Bible don’t tell folks about heaven. You know papa says that there’s -lots of things the Lord don’t let people know ’bout heaven; ’cause it’ -none of their business, an’ I guess that’s one of ’em.” - -“Wish dere’d be some more Bibles, den! I wantsh to know lotsh more -fingsh.” - -“Well, anyhow,” said Budge, “we’re goin’ home to-day, an’ that fills -me so full I ain’t got room for the littlest speck of heaven. Wonder -who’s goin’ to take us, an’ when we’re a-goin’, an’ ev’rything? -Let’s go ask Uncle Harry.” - -“Come on!” exclaimed Toddie, “Izh been finkin’ awful hard ’bout how to -get into his bedroom wifout bein’ scolded, an’ now I know. Hurry up -’fore we forgets.” - -Both boys hurried to the family chamber, and assaulted the door with -fists and feet. - -“’The overture of the angels,’” quoted Mr. Burton, “’and positively -their last appearance.’” - -“Don’t speak of it,” said Mrs. Burton. “I’ve been crying about it in my -dreams, I believe, and I’m in a condition to begin again.” - -“I’ve a great mind to make them cry,” said the man of the house -savagely. “No scrubbing will take the mark of small shoe-toes out of -painted wood.” - -“Let them kick to their dear little hearts’ content! Not a mark of that -kind shall ever be insulted by a scrubbing brush. I feel as if I’d like -to go about the house and kiss everything they’ve touched.” - -“You might kiss the sounding board of my violin, then,” said Mr. -Burton, “where there’s an ineffaceable scratch from a nail in Toddie’s -shoe, placed there on the morning of your birthday anniversary. There’s -a nice generous blot on the wood of the writing-desk, too, where Toddie -upset a bottle of violet ink. Would that your kisses could efface -the stain that the cabinet-maker says is indelible. Then there are -some dingy streaks on the wall beside their bed, where they’ve lain -crosswise and rubbed their heads against the wall.” - -“It shall remain forever,” said the lady. - -“What! in your darling spare chamber?” - -A violent mental struggle showed its indications in Mrs. Burton’s face, -but she replied: - -“The furniture can be changed. We can put a screen in front of the -place; we’ll change the room in any way, excepting their blessed tokens -of occupation.” - -But none of this devotion found its way through the keyhole to shame -the boys into silence, for the noise increased until Mrs. Burton -herself hastened to draw the bolt. - -“It’s us,” was the unnecessary information, volunteered by Budge as -the door opened; “an’ we want to know when we’re goin’ home, an’ -who’s goin’ to take us, an’ how, an’ what you’re goin’ to give us to -remember you by, an’ we don’t care to have it flowers, ’cause we’ve -got plenty of ’em at home.” - -“Fruit-cake would be nicesht,” suggested Toddie. “Folks ’members that -an awful long time, ’cause when mamma once asked papa if he ’membered -de fruit-cake at Mrs. Birch’s party he looked drefful sad, an’ said -he couldn’t ever forget it. Say, Aunt Alish, don’t you get extra nice -dinners for folks dat’s goin’ away? Mamma always doesh; says dey need -it, cauzh folks need to be well-feeded when they’e goin’ to travel.” -[The distance from the Burton residence to that of the Lawrences was -about a quarter of a mile.] - -“You shall have a good-by dinner, Toddie, dear,” said Mrs. Burton; “and -the very nicest one that I can prepare.” - -“Better make it a brekspup,” suggested Toddie. “Mebbe we’ll be come for -’fore dinner-time.” - -“You sha’n’t be taken until you get it, dear.” - -“I ’pects I’ll have an awful good dinner waitin’ for us, too, when we -get home,” said Budge; “’cause that’s the way the papa in the Bible -did, an’ yet he had only one boy come home instead of two, an’ he’d -been bad.” - -“What portion of the Scriptural narrative is that child running into -now?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“Aunt Alice don’t know who you’re talking about, Budge,” said Mr. -Burton. “Explain it to her.” - -“Why, that boy that his papa made a dinner out of fat veal for,” said -Budge; “though I never could see how that was a very nice dinner.” - -“Worse and worse,” sighed Mrs. Burton. - -“Tell us all about it, old fellow,” said Mr. Burton. “We don’t know -what you’re driving at.” - -“Why,” exclaimed Budge, “are you bad folks that don’t read your -Bible-books? I thought everybody knew about him. Why, he was a boy -that went to his papa one day and told him that whatever he was goin’ -to give him as long as he lived, he wished he’d give it to him all at -once. An’ his papa did. Wasn’t he a lovely papa, though? So the boy -took the money, an’ went travelin’, an’ had larks. There’s a picture -about it all in Tommy Bryan’ mamma’s parlor, but I don’t think it’s -very larkey; he’s just a-sittin’ down with a whole lot of women -actin’ like geese all around him. But he had to pay money to have -larks, an’ he had such lots of ’em that pretty soon he didn’t have -no money. Say, Uncle Harry, why don’t people have all the money they -want?” - -“That’s the world’s prize conundrum,” said Mr. Burton. “Ask me -something easier.” - -“I’m goin’ to have all the money I wantsh when I gets growed,” said -Toddie. - -“How are you going to get it?” asked his uncle, with natural interest. - -“Goin’ to be real good, an’ then ashk de Lord for it,” said Toddie. -“Wonder where de Lord keepsh de lotsh of nysh fings he’ goin’ to give -good people when dey ashk Him for ’em?--money and fings?” - -“Why, in heaven, of course,” said Budge. - -“Hazh He got a savin’ bank an’ a toy-store?” asked Toddie. - -“Sh--h--h!” whispered Mrs. Burton. - -“He’s only talking of what grown people expect, my dear,” said Mr. -Burton. “Go on, Budge.” - -“Well, he didn’t have any more money, an’ he couldn’t write to his -papa for some, ’cause there wasn’t any post offices in that country, so -he went to work for a man, an’ the man made him feed pigs, and he had -to eat the same things that the pigs ate. I don’t know whether he ate -them out of a troff or not.” - -“It’s a great pity that you are in doubt on that point,” said Mr. -Burton. - -“He could play in de mud like de pigs, couldn’t he?” said Toddie. “His -papa was too far away to know about it, an’ to say ‘Don’t!’s at him.” - -“I s’pose so,” said Budge, “but I don’t think a boy could feel much -like playin’ with mud when he had to eat with the pigs. Well, he went -along bein’ a pig-feeder, when all at once he ’membered that there was -always enough to eat at his papa’s house. Say, Uncle Harry, boys is -alike everywhere, ain’t they?” - -“I suppose so, present company excepted. But what reminded you of it?” - -“Why, he wanted to go home when he couldn’t hook enough from the pigs -to fill his stomach, an’ my papa says little boys that can’t be found -when their mamma wants ’em always start for home when they get hungry. -That’s what this boy off in another country did--papa says the Bible -don’t tell whether he told the man to get another pig-feeder, or -whether he just skooted in a hurry. But, anyhow, he got pretty near -home, an’ I guess he felt awful ashamed of himself an’ went along the -back road; for, in the picture of our big Bible-book, his clothes are -awful ragged an’ mussy, an’ he must have been sure he was goin’ to -get scolded an’ wish he could get in the back door an’ go up to his -room without anybody seein’ him.” - -“Oh, Harry!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “This is growing perfectly -dreadful. It’ positively sacrilegious.” - -“The application is the only sacred part of the original, my dear,” -said Mr. Burton, “and you may trust that boy to discover the point of -anything. I wish doctors of divinity were like him. Go ahead, Budge.” - -“Well, he was sneakin’ along, an’ gettin’ behind trees an’ fences -whenever he saw anybody comin’ that he knew, when all at once his papa -saw him. Papas always can see farther than anybody else, I believe, -an’ they always kind o’s know when their boys are comin’, an’ they -just look as if they’d always been standin’ right there waitin’ for -’em. An’ that pig-feeder’s papa ran right out of the house without his -hat on--that’s the way he is in the picture in the big Bible-book, an’ -grabbed him, an’ kissed him, an’ hugged him so hard that he had to -grunt, an’----” - -“An’ he didn’t say ‘Why, how did you get your clozhezh so dyty,’s -eiver?” said Toddie. - -“No, indeed! An’ the pig-feeder said he’d been a bad boy, an’ he -guessed he’d better eat his dinner in the kitchen after that, but his -papa wouldn’t let him. He put clean clothes on him, an’ gave him a new -pair of shoes, an’ put a ring on his finger.” - -“Ringsh ain’t good to eat,” said Toddie. “I fwallowed one once, I did, -an’ it didn’t taste nohow at all. And den I had to take some nashty -medshin, an’ de ring came unfwallowed again.” - -“He didn’t give him the ring to eat, you silly boy,” said Budge. “Rings -squeeze fingers all the time, an’ let folks know how the folks that -give ’em the rings want to squeeze ’em all the time. Then they killed -a whole calf--’cause the pig-feeder was awful empty, you know, an’ -they had a jolly old time. An’ the pig-feeder’s big brother heard ’em -all cuttin’ up, an’ he was real cross about it, ’cause he’d always -been good, an’ there hadn’t ever been any tea-parties made for him. -But his papa said, ‘Oh, don’t say a word--we’ve got your brother back -again--just think of that, my boy.’s I’m awful sorry for that big -brother, though; I know how he felt, for when Tod’s bad, an’ I’m good -papa just takes Tod in his lap an’ talks to him, an’ hugs him, an’ -I feel awful lonesome an’ wish I wasn’t good a bit.” - -“And what do you suppose the bad boy’ mamma did when she saw him?” -asked Mr. Burton. - -[Illustration: “SOME NASHTY MEDSHIN”] - -“Oh,” said Budge, “I guess she didn’t say anythin’, but just looked so -sad at him that he made up his mind he wouldn’t ever do a naughty thing -again as long as he lived, an’ after that he’d stand behind her chair -whole half-hours at a time just to look at her where she wouldn’t catch -him at it.” - -“And what do you think that whole story means, Budge?” asked Mrs. -Burton, determined to impress at least one prominent theological -deduction upon her nephew. - -“Why, it means that good papas can always see when bad boys is real -ashamed of themselves,” said Budge, “an’ know it’s best to be real -sweet to ’em then, an’ that papas that can’t see and don’t know better -than to scold ’em they needn’t ever expect to see their bad little boys -come home again.” - -Mrs. Burton started, and her husband laughed inwardly at this unusual -application, but the lady recovered herself and returned in haste to -her point. - -“Don’t you think it’s intended to teach us anything about the Lord?” -she asked. - -“Why, yes,” said Budge, “of course. He is the best of all papas, so -he’ll be better to his bad children than any other good papas know how -to be.” - -“That’s what the story is meant to teach,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“I thought everybody knew that about the Lord.” Budge replied. - -“If they did, Jesus would never have told the story,” said Mrs. Burton. - -“Oh, I s’pose those old Jews had to be told it,” said Budge, “’cause -folks used to be awful bad to their children, an’ believe the Lord -would be awful bad to them.” - -“People need to be told the same story now, Budge,” continued Mrs. -Burton. “They love to hear it, and know how good the Lord is willing to -be to them.” - -“Do they love it better than to learn how good they ought to be to -their children?” Budge asked. “Then I think they’re piggish. I wouldn’t -like my papa an’ mamma to be that way. They say that it’s gooder to -care for what you can give than what you can get. An’ Uncle Harry -hasn’t told us yet when we’re goin’ home, and who’s goin’ to take us.” - -“Your papa is going to come for you as he returns from the city,” said -Mr. Burton. “I think he wants to tell you something before you go home; -you little boys don’t know yet how to act in a house where there’s sick -mammas and little babies.” - -“Oh, yes, we do,” said Budge. “All we’ve got to do is to sit still an’ -look at ’em with all our mights.” - -“Only dzust dzump up ev’ry two or free minutes to kiss ’em,” suggested -Toddie. - -“Yes,” said Budge, “an’ to pat their cheeks an’ to put nice things to -eat in their mouths, like papa an’ mamma does to us, when we’re sick.” - -“An’ make music for ’em,” said Toddie. - -“An’ give ’em pennies,” said Budge. - -“An’ shake their savings banks for ’em to make de pennies rattle, like -Budgie did for me once when I was too sick to rattle my own bank,” said -Toddie, bestowing a frantic hug upon his brother. - -“An’ put the room to rights for ’em,” said Budge. - -“An’ bring ’em in nice mud-pies all ready baked, like I did once for -Budgie, to play wif on de bed when he was sick,” said Toddie. - -“An’ dance for ’em,” suggested Budge. “That’s the way I used to do for -Baby Phillie, an’ it always made him happy.” - -“An’ put up pictures on de wall for ’em,” said Toddie; “we’s got whole -newspapers full that we’s cutted out up in your garret; and dere’s a -whole bottle of mucilage----” - -“My war file of illustrated papers!” explained Mr. Burton. “How did -they find that? Oh, this cross of love!” - -“Whole bottle of mucilage in papa’s room to stick ’em on wif,” -continued Toddie; “an’ mamma’s room is nice pink, like de leaves of my -scrap-book dat pictures look so pretty on.” - -“And these are the child-ideas of being good and useful!” exclaimed -Mrs. Burton, as the boys forgot everything else in the discovery of -their uncle’s razor-strop with an extension at one end. - -“Yes,” sighed Mr. Burton, “and they’re not much nearer the proper -thing, in spite of their good intentions, than the plans of grown -people for the management of children, the reformation of the world, -and a great many other things.” - -“Harry!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. - -“No personal allusion, my dear,” said her husband, quickly. “I’d no -thought of anything of the kind. Adults and children alike mean well -enough; the difference is that the former wonder why their ideas are -not appreciated while with the children the energies of parents and -teachers are devoted to treating mistaken opinions as great sins. How -many children could do the kindnesses which Budge and Toddie have -devised out of the tenderness of their dear little hearts and not be -scolded and whipped for their pains? Hosts of children have had all the -good blood and kind heart and honest head scolded and beaten out of -them, and only the baser qualities of their natures allowed to grow, -and these only because in youth many of them are dormant and don’t make -trouble.” - -“Harry, what a preacher you are!--what a terrible preacher!” exclaimed -Mrs. Burton. - -“Where does the terror come in?” asked Mr. Burton, with signs of that -indignation which every man with an idea in advance of his generation -must frequently be afflicted by. - -“Why, to imply that there’s so much injustice being done to children.” - -“Of course the saying of it is worse than the fact of its existence,” -said Mr. Burton, with a curl of the lip. - -“Please don’t speak in that cruel way, Harry. It isn’t anything of the -sort--excepting for a moment or two.” - -Mr. Burton apologized, and restored confidence without saying a word, -and then the couple turned instinctively to look at the first causes of -their conversation, but the boys were gone. - -“The tocsin of their souls, the dinner-bell--breakfast-bell, I mean, -has probably sounded,” said Mr. Burton; “and I’m as hungry as a bear -myself. Let’s descend and see what they’ve succeeded in doing within -five brief minutes.” - -The Burtons found the dining-room, but not the boys and the chambermaid -was sent in search of them. The meal was slowly consumed but the boys -did not appear. - -“You’d better have the cook prepare something additional,” suggested -Mr. Burton, as he arose and started for his train. “The appetite of the -small boy is a principal that accumulates frightful usury in a very -small while after maturity.” - -Mrs. Burton acted upon her husband’ suggestion, and busied herself -about household affairs for an hour or more, until, learning that -the boys had not yet arrived, she strolled out to search for them. -Supposing that they might have been overpowered by their impatience -so far as to have gone home at once, she visited the residence of her -sister-in-law, and inquired of Mike. - -“Dhivil a bit have they been here,” replied Michael. “Ain’t me ould -eyes sore for the soight av ’em all the whoile ag’in? They’re nowhere -about here, rest ye aisy.” - -“I’m afraid they may be lost,” said Mrs. Burton. - -Mike burst into a prolonged horse laugh, and then, recovering himself -by sundry contortions and swallowings, he replied: - -“Beggin’ yez pardon, ma’am, but I couldn’t help it--as the blessed -Virgin is smoilin’ in heaven, I cuddent--but thim byes can niver be -lost. Lost, is it? Cud ye lose a ghost or a bird? They’ll foind their -way anywhere they’ve been once, an’ if they haven’t been there before -they’ll belave they have, an’ foind their way out all roight. Lave yer -boddher till dinner-time, an’ mark me wurruds ye’ll foind ye’ve no -nade av it. Losht!” and Mike burst into another laugh that he hurried -into the stable to hide while Mrs. Burton returned to her home with a -mind almost quiet. - -The morning ended, however, and no small boys appeared at the table. -Mrs. Burton’s fears came back with increased strength and she hurried -off again to Mike and implored him to go in search of the children. The -sight of an ugly looking tramp or two by the way suggested kidnapping -to Mrs. Burton and brought tears to her eyes. Even the doubting Mike, -when he learned that the children had eaten nothing that day, grew -visibly alarmed and mounted one of his master’s horses in hot haste. - -“Where are you going first, Mike?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“Dhivil a bit do I know!” exclaimed Mike; “but I’m goin’ to foind ’em, -an’ may the blessed saints go with me!” - -Away galloped Mike, and Mrs. Burton, fearing that the alarm might -reach the boys’ mother, hurried home, started the cook on one road, -the chambermaid on another, and herself on a third, while Mike sought -the candystore, the schoolhouse, sundry bridges over brooks, and the -various other places that boys delight in. Mrs. Burton’s own course -was along a road leading up the rugged, heavily wooded hill called by -courtesy a mountain, but she paused so many times, to call, to listen, -to step considerably out of her way to see if dimly descried figures -were not those of her nephews, and to discover that what seemed in the -forest to be boyish figures were only stumps or bushes, that she spent -at least two hours upon the road, which doubled many times upon itself. -Suddenly she saw in the road beyond her a familiar figure dragging a -large green bough. - -“Budge!” she screamed and ran toward him. The little figure turned -its head, and Mrs. Burton was shocked to see a haggard face, whose -whiteness intensified the starting eyes, pink, distended nostrils, and -thin, drawn lips of her nephew. And upon the bough, holding to one -of the upper sprigs tightly with one hand, while with the other he -clutched something green and crumpled, lay Toddie, dust-encrusted from -head to foot. - -“Oh! what has happened?” Mrs. Burton exclaimed. - -Toddie raised his head and explained. - -“Izhe a shotted soldier bein’ tookted to where de shooters can’t catch -me, like sometimes dey used to be in de war.” - -Budge dropped in the road and cried. - -“Oh, what is it?” cried Mrs. Burton, kneeling beside Toddie, and taking -him in her arms. And Toddie replied: - -“Ow!” - -“Budge, dear,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, releasing Toddie, and hurrying to -his brother, “what has happened? Do tell me!” - -Budge opened his eyes and mouth reluctantly, and replied with a thin -voice: - -“Wait till I get alive again, an’ I’ll tell you. I haven’t got many -words inside of me now; they’re all dropped out, I’m so tired, and, -oh----” - -[Illustration: “I’ZHE A SHOTTED SOLDIER”] - -Budge closed his eyes again. Mrs. Burton picked him up tenderly, sat -upon a large stone, rocked back and forth, kissed him repeatedly, cried -over him, while Toddie turned upon his stomach, surveyed the scene with -apparent satisfaction, and said: - -“Say, Aunt Alish, it’s djolly to be a shotted soldier.” - -Budge slowly recovered, put his arm around his aunt tightly, and said: - -“Oh, Aunt Alice, ’twas awful!” - -“Tell me all about it, dear, when you feel well enough. Where have you -been all day? Aunty’s heart has been almost broken about you.” - -“Why, you see, we wanted to do something nice for you, ’fore we went -home to stay, ’cause you’ve been so nice to us. Why, when we talked -about it, we couldn’t think of a single unpleasant thing you’d done to -us--though I’m sure you done a lot. Anyhow, we couldn’t ’member any.” - -“’Cept sayin’ ‘Don’t!’s lotzh of timesh,” said Toddie. - -“Well,” said Budge, “Tod thought ’bout that, but we made up our minds -perhaps we needed that said to us. An’ we couldn’t think of anything -nicer than to get you some wild flowers. Ev’rybody’s got tame flowers, -you know, so we thought wild ones would be nicer. An’ we thought we -could get ’em ’fore breakbux if we’d hurry, so off we came right up to -the foot of the mountains, but there wasn’t any. I guess they wasn’t -awake yet, or else they’d gone to sleep. Then we didn’t know what to -do.” - -“’Cept get you some bych [birch] bark,” said Toddie. - -“Yes,” said Budge; “but birch bark is to eat, an’ not to look at; an’ -we wanted to give you somethin’ you could see, an’ remember us a few -days by.” - -“An’ all of a sudden I said ’fynes!’ [ferns],” said Toddie. - -“Yes,” said Budge, “Tod said it first, but I thought it the same -second. An’ there’ lovely ferns up in the rocks. Don’t you see?” - -Mrs. Burton looked, and shuddered. The cliff above her head was a -hundred feet high, jagged all over its front, yet from every crevice -exquisite ferns posed their peaceful fronds before the cold gray of the -rock. - -“’Twasn’t here,” Budge continued. “’Twas ’way up around the corner, -where the rocks ain’t so high, but they’re harder to climb. We climbed -up here first.” - -“You dreadful, darling children!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, giving Budge -a squeeze of extra severity. “To think of two little children going up -such a dreadful place! Why, it makes me dizzy to see your Uncle Harry -do it.” - -“Ain’t childrens, when we climb mountainsh!” asserted Toddie; “we’zh -mans den.” - -“Well,” Budge continued, “we got lots, and throwed each one away ’cause -we kept seein’ nicer ones higher up. Say, Aunt Alice, what’s the -reason things higher up always look extra nice?” - -“I know,” said Toddie. - -“Why is it, Toddie?” Mrs. Burton asked. - -“’Cauzh deysh closer to hebben,” said Toddie. “G’won, Budgie. I likes -to hear ’bout it, too.” - -“Well, at last we got to a place where the rocks all stopped and some -more began. An’ up on them was the loveliest ferns of all.” - -“An’ I went up dat mountain fyst, I did,” said Toddie. - -“Yes, Tod did, the blessed little sassy rascal,” said Budge, blowing -a kiss to his brother. “I told him I didn’t believe that any ferns was -nicer than any others, but he said, ‘Lord’ll make ’em so den, for Aunt -Alish.’s An’ up he went, just like a spider.” - -“Went up fyst,” said Toddie. - -“’Course you did,” said Budge. “’Cause I didn’t go up at all. And Tod -was pullin’ at a big fern with his back to me, an’ the first thing I -knew there he was in the air layin’ down sideways on nothin’. Then he -hollered.” - -“’Cauzh I camed down bunk on whole lotch of little rocks,” explained -Toddie. “But I didn’t lose the fyne--here tizh!” and Toddie held up a -badly crushed and wilted ball of something that had once been a fern, -seeing which Mrs. Burton placed Budge on the stone, hurried to Toddie, -thrust the bruised fern into her bosom, and kissed its captor soundly. - -“Hold me some more,” said Budge, “I don’t feel very good yet.” - -“Then what did you do?” asked Mrs. Burton, resuming her position as -nurse. - -“Why, Tod went on hollerin’, an’ he couldn’t walk, so I helped him -down to the road, an’ he couldn’t walk yet----” - -Mrs. Burton had turned again to Toddie, and carefully examined his legs -without finding any broken bones. - -“The hurt is in de bottom part of my leg an’ de top part of my foot,” -said Toddie, who had turned his ankle. - -“An’ he just hollered ‘mam-_ma_’s and ‘pa-_pa_,’ so sad,” continued -Budge. “An’ ’twas awful. An’ I looked up the road an’ there wasn’t -anybody, an’ down the front of the mountain and there wasn’t anybody, -an’ I didn’t know what to do, ’cause ’twouldn’t do to go ’way off home -to tell, when a poor little brother was feelin’ so dreadful bad. Then -I ’membered how papa said he’d sometimes seen shot soldiers carried -away when there wasn’t any wagons. So I pulled at the limb of a tree to -get the thing to drag him on.” - -“Why, Budge!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, “you don’t mean to say you got -that bough all alone by yourself, do you?” - -“Well, no, I guess not,” said Budge, hesitatingly. “I pulled at one -after another, but not one of them would split, and then I thought of -somethin’ an’ kneeled right down by the tree, an’ told the Lord -all about it, an’ told Him I knew He didn’t want poor little hurt Tod -to lie there all day, an’ wouldn’t He please help me break a limb -to draw him on? An’ when I got up off of my knees I was as strong -as forty thousand horses. I don’t think I needed the Lord to help me -a bit then. An’ I just gave one pull at the limb, an’ down it came -kersplit, an’ I put Tod on it, an’ dragged him. But I tell you it was -hard work!” - -“’Twash fun, too,” said Toddie, “’cept when it went where dere was -little rocks in de road, an’ dey came up an’ hitted de hurt playsh.” - -“I dragged it in the soft parts of the road,” said Budge, “whenever I -could, but sometimes there wasn’t any soft place all across the road. -An’ things jumped inside of me--that little heart-engine, you know, -awfully. I could only go about a dozen steps without stoppin’ to -rest. An’ then Tod stopped cryin’ an’ said he was hungry, an’ that -reminded me that I was hungry, too.” - -“But we didn’t lose the fyne,” said Toddie. - -Mrs. Burton took the memento from her breast and kissed it. - -“Why,” said Budge, “you like it, don’t you? All right, then. Tod an’ -me don’t care for bothers an’ hurts now, do we, Tod?” - -“No, indeedy,” said Toddie. “Not when we can ride like shotted -soldiers, an’ get home to get breakbux an’ lunch togevver.” - -“Neither of you shall have any more trouble about getting home,” said -Mrs. Burton. “Just sit here quietly while I go and send a carriage for -you.” - -“Oh!” said Budge. “That’ll be lovely; won’t it, Tod? Ain’t you glad you -got hurt? But say? Aunt Alice, haven’t you got any crackers in your -pocket?” - -“Why, no--certainly not!” exclaimed the lady, temporarily losing her -tenderness. - -“Oh! I thought you might have. Papa always does, when he goes out to -look for us when we stay away from home a good while.” - -Suddenly a horse’s hoofs were heard on the road below. - -“I shouldn’t wonder if that was Mike,” said Mrs. Burton. “He has been -out on horseback, looking for you.” - -“I shouldn’t wonder if ’twas papa,” said Budge. “He’s the funniest man -for always comin’ anywhere first when we need him most.” - -“An’ wif crackers,” Toddie added. - -The clattering hoofs came nearer, though slower, and, true to the -children’s intuitions, around the bend of the road came Tom Lawrence -on horseback, an old army haversack and canteen slung over his shoulder. - -“Papa!” shouted both boys. “Hooray!” Tom Lawrence waved his hat, and -Toddie shouted, “He’s got de crackers! I see de bag!” The father reined -up suddenly and dismounted, Budge rushed to his arms, and Toddie -exclaimed, - -“Papa, guesh it’s a long time since you’ seen a shotted soldier, ain’t -it?” - -Then Toddie was placed in the saddle, and Budge behind him, and the -precious haversack was opened and found to contain sandwiches, and -both boys tried to drink out of the canteen, and poured a great deal -of water into their bosoms, and Tom led the horse carefully, and Mrs. -Burton walked upon one side, with a hand under Toddie’s lame leg to -keep the bruised ankle from touching the saddle, and she did not -swerve from the middle of the dusty road, even when carriages full of -stylish acquaintances were met, and both little heroes, like men of -larger growth, forgot at once that they had ever been heroic, and they -prattled as inconsequently as any couple of silly children could, and -the horse was led by a roundabout road so that no one might see the -party and apprise Mrs. Lawrence that anything unusual had happened, and -the boys were heavily bribed to tell their mother nothing until their -father had explained, and they were carried in, each in his father’ -arms, to kiss their mamma; and when they undressed and went to bed, -the sister-baby was, by special dispensation of the nurse, allowed to -lie between them for a few moments, and the evening ceremonies were -prolonged by the combined arts of boys and parent, and then Budge knelt -and prayed: - -“Dear Lord, we’re awful glad to get back again, ’cause nobody can be -like papa and mamma to us, an’ I’m so thankful I don’t know what to do -for bein’ made so strong when I wanted to break that limb off of the -tree, and bless dear Aunt Alice for findin’ us, and bless poor uncle -more, ’cause he tried to find us, and was disappointed, and make every -little boy’s papa just like ours, to come to ’em just when they need -him, just like you. Amen.” - -And Toddie shut his eyes in bed, and said, - -“Dee Lord, I went up de mountain fyst. Don’t forget dat. Amen.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - -There was a little family conclave at the Lawrence house a fortnight -later. No deliberative meeting had been intended; quite the contrary; -for Mrs. Lawrence was on that day to make her first appearance at the -dinner-table in a month, and Mrs. Burton and her husband were invited -to step in informally on the occasion, and they had been glad enough to -do so although the boys, who had been allowed to dine that night with -the family in honor of the occasion, conversed so volubly that no other -person at the table could speak without interruption. - -But there came an hour when the boys could no longer prolong the usual -preliminaries of going to bed, although they kissed their parents -and visitors once as a matter of course, a second time to be sure -they had done it, and a third time to assure themselves that they -had forgotten nobody. Then several chats were interrupted by various -juvenile demands, pleas and questions from the upper floor; but as, -when Lawrence went in person to answer the last one he found both boys -sleeping soundly the families devoted themselves to each other with the -determination of passing a pleasant evening. They talked of what was -going on in the world, and much that might be going on but was not, the -blame being due to persons who did not think as they did; they sang, -played, quoted books, talked pictures and bric-a-brac, and then Mrs. -Lawrence changed the entire course of conversation by promising to -replace Mrs. Burton’s chair which the dog Terry had destroyed by special -arrangement with the boys. - -[Illustration: BOTH BOYS SLEEPING SOUNDLY] - -“You sha’n’t do anything of the sort!” said Mrs. Burton. “Keep the dear -little scamps from playing such pranks on any one who don’t happen to -love them so well, and I’ll forgive them.” - -“You don’t imagine for a moment that they knew what the result would be -when they tied Terry to the chair, do you?” Mrs. Lawrence asked. - -“Never!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, emphatically, “but they did it, and it -might have happened somewhere else, with people who didn’t love them so -well, and what would they have thought?” - -“She means that strangers would have imagined your boys a couple of -little boors, Nell,” said Mr. Burton to his sister. - -“Strangers know nothing whatever about other people’s children,” said -Mrs. Lawrence with dignity, “and they should therefore have nothing to -do with them and pass no opinions upon them. No one estimates children -by what they are; they only judge by the amount of trouble they make.” - -“Now you’ve done it, Mistress Alice,” said Mr. Burton to his wife. “It -is better to meet a she-bear that is robbed of her whelps than a mother -whose children are criticized by any one but herself.” - -“I’ve done it!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Who translated my quiet remark -into something offensive. Besides, you’ve misapplied Scripture only -to suggest things worse yet. If I’m not mistaken, the proverb about -the she-bear and her whelps has something in it about a fool and his -folly. Do you mean to insinuate such insulting ideas about your sister -and her darlings?” - -But no amount of badinage could make Mrs. Lawrence forget that some -implied advice was secreted in her sister-in-law’s carefully worded -remark, so she continued, - -“I’m extremely sorry they had to go to you, but I couldn’t imagine what -better to do. I wish Tom could have staid at home all the while to -take care of them. I hope, if we ever die, they may follow us at once. -Nothing is so dreadful as the idea of one’s children being perpetually -misunderstood by some one else, and having their honest little hearts -hardened and warped just when they should be cared for most patiently -and tenderly.” - -“Helen!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, changing her seat so as to take Mrs. -Lawrence’ hand, “I’d die for your children at any time, if it would do -them any good.” - -“I believe you, you dear girl,” said Mrs. Lawrence, recovering her -natural manner, and not entirely unashamed of her outburst of feeling, -“but you don’t understand it all, as you will some day. The children -trouble me worse than they ever did or can any one else; but it isn’t -their fault, and I know it, and can endure it. No one else can. I -am sure I don’t know how to blame people who are annoyed by juvenile -pranks.” - -“Then what’s to be done with youngsters in general?” Mrs. Burton asked. - -“They’re to be kept at home,” said Mrs. Lawrence, “under the eye of -father or mother continually, until they are large enough to trust; and -the age at which they’re to be trusted should not be determined by the -impatience of their parents, either.” - -“Don’t be frightened, Allie,” said Tom. “Helen had some of these -notions before she had any boys of her own to defend.” - -“They’re certainly not the result of my children’s happy experiences -with the best aunt and uncle that ever lived,” said Mrs. Lawrence, -caressing her adopted sister’ hand. “If you could hear the boys’s -praises of you both, you’d grow insufferably vain, and imagine -yourselves born to manage orphan asylums.” - -“Heaven forbid!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, the immediate result of her -utterance being the partial withdrawal of Mrs. Lawrence’ hand. “There -are only two children in the family----” - -“Three,” corrected Mrs. Lawrence promptly. - -“Oh, bless me, what have I said!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “Well, there -are only three children in the family, and they are not enough to found -an asylum, while I feel utterly unfitted to care for any one child that -I don’t know very well and love very dearly.” - -“Is it possible that any one can learn so much in so short a time?” -exclaimed Tom Lawrence. “Harry, my boy, you’re to be congratulated.” - -“Upon having educated me?” Mrs. Burton asked. - -“Upon the rare wisdom with which he selected a wife, or, the special -favor he found at the court where matches are made,” Tom explained. - -“Harry didn’t select me at all,” said Mrs. Burton. “Budge did it for -him, so of course the match was decreed in heaven. But may I know of -what my sudden acquisition of knowledge consists? If there’s anything -in my experience with the boys that I am not to feel humiliated about, -I should be extremely glad to know of it. I went into the valley of -humiliation within an hour of their arrival, and since then I’ve -scarcely been out of it.” - -“If it weren’t for being suspected of throwing moral deductions at -people,” Tom replied, “I would say that that same valley of humiliation -is very prolific of discoveries. But, preaching aside, no one can -manage children without first loving them. Even a heart full of love -has to make room for a lot of sorrow over blunders and failures.” - -“I’ve learned that affection is absolutely necessary,” said Mrs. -Burton, “but I confess that I don’t see clearly that love requires that -one should be trampled upon, wheedled, made of no account and without -authority in one’s own house, submit to anything, in fact----” - -“Now you’ve done it again,” whispered Mr. Burton to his wife, as Helen -Lawrence’ cheek began to flush, and that maternal divinity replied: - -“Does the parent of all of us resign his authority when he humors us in -our childish ways because we can’t comprehend any greater ones? Every -concession is followed by growth on the part of his children, if they -are honest; when they are not, it seems to me that the concessions -aren’t made. But my children are honest.” - -Mrs. Burton’s lips were parting, seeing which her husband whispered, - -“Don’t!” - -There was a moment or two of silence; then Mrs. Burton asked: - -“How are people to know when they’re not being imposed upon by -children? You can’t apply to the funny little beings the rules that -explain the ways of grown people.” - -“Is it the most dreadful thing in the world to be imposed upon by a -child?” asked Tom. “We never impose upon them, do we? We never give -them unfair answers, arbitrary commands, unkind restrictions, simply to -save ourselves a little extra labor or thought?” - -“Tom!” Mrs. Burton exclaimed; “I don’t do anything of the sort, I am -sure.” - -“Why will you display so touchy a conscience, then?” whispered her -husband. “If you continue to put up your defense the instant Tom -launches a criticism, he’ll begin to suspect you of dreadful cruelty to -the boys.” - -“Not I,” laughed Tom. - -“She had you to reform, for half a year before the boys visited her,” -said Helen, “and you still live.” - -“But, Tom, seriously now, you don’t mean to have me infer that children -shouldn’t be made to mind, and be prevented from doing things that can -bother their elders?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“Certainly they should have to obey,” said Tom, “but I’d rather they -wouldn’t, if at the same time they must learn, as in general they do, -that obedience is imposed more for the benefit of their elders than -themselves.” - -“I was always taught to obey,” said Mrs. Burton, with the not unusual -though always unconscious peculiarity of supposing the recital of -personal experience to be a sufficient argument and precedent. - -“Do you find the habit still strong in her, Harry?” asked Tom. - -“_Do_ I!” exclaimed Harry, with a mock tragic air, “’could I the -horrors of my prison house unfold,’s you would see that the obedient -member of the Burton family never appears in gowns.” - -“Certainly not,” said Mrs. Burton. “Didn’t he promise to be mine, and -shall I neglect my responsibilities? I obeyed my parents.” - -“And never doubted that their orders were wise, beneficent, and -necessary, of course?” asked Lawrence. - -[Illustration: THE OBEDIENT MEMBER OF THE BURTON FAMILY] - -“Tom, Tom!” said Helen, warningly; “if you don’t want Alice to abuse -other people’s children be careful what you say about other children’s -parents. Don’t play grand inquisitor.” - -“Oh, not at all,” said Tom, hastily. “But I should like to borrow -woman’ curiosity for a while, and have it gratified in this particular -case.” - -“I don’t know that I always admitted the wisdom of my parents’s -commands,” said Mrs. Burton; “but how could I? I was only a child.” - -“You rendered unquestioning obedience in spirit as well as in act, when -you became a young lady, then?” pursued Tom. - -“No, I didn’t. There!” Mrs. Burton exclaimed; “but what return can a -child make for parental care and suffering, except to at least seem to -be a model of compliance with its parents’s desires?” - -“Good!” exclaimed Harry. “And what can a husband, who knows that his -own way is best, do to recompense wifely companionship but meekly do as -his wife wants him to, no matter how incorrect her ideas?” - -“He can listen to reason and not be a conceited goose,” said Mrs. -Burton; “and he can refrain from impeding the flow of brotherly -instruction.” - -“Tom shall say whatever he likes,” said Mr. Burton. - -Mrs. Lawrence’s smile showed that she would be satisfied with the -result, and her husband continued: - -“Children--ninety-nine one-hundredths of those I’ve seen, at least, -are treated as necessary nuisances by their parents. The good fathers -and mothers would be horrified to realize this truth, and when it -accidentally presents itself, as it frequently does to any with heart -and head, its appearance is so unpleasing and perplexing that they -promptly take refuge in tradition. Weren’t they brought up in the same -way? To be sure, it’s the application of the same rule that has always -made the ex-slave the cruelest of overseers, and the ex-servant the -worst of masters; but such comparisons are odious to one’s pride, and -what chance has self-respect when pride steps down before it?” - -“Poor human nature!” sighed Harry. “You’ll get to Adam’s fall pretty -soon, won’t you, Tom?” - -“Don’t fear,” laughed Mr. Lawrence. “It’ the falling of later people -that troubles me--that, and their willingness to stay down when they’ve -tumbled and the calmness with which they can lie quiet and crush poor -little children who aren’t responsible for being under them. Adam knew -enough to wish himself back in his honorable position, but most parents -have had no lofty position to which they could look longingly back, -and but few of them can remember any such place having been in the -possession of any member of their respective families.” - -“But what is to be done, even if any one wishes to live up to your -ideal standard as a guardian of children?” Mrs. Burton asked. “Submit -to any and every imposition; allow every misdeed to go unpunished; be -the ruled instead of the ruler?” - -“Oh, no,” said Tom, “it’s something far harder than that. It’s to live -for the children instead of one’s self.” - -“And have all your nice times spoiled and your plans upset?” - -“Yes, unless they’re really of more value than human life and human -character,” Tom replied. “You indicated the proper starting point in -your last remark; if you’ll study that for yourself, you’ll learn a -great deal more than I can tell you, and learn it more pleasantly too.” - -“I don’t care to study,” said Mrs. Burton, “when I can get my -information at second-hand.” - -“Go on, Tom,” said Mr. Burton, “Continue to appear in your character of -the ‘Parental Encyclopædist’; we’ll try to stop one ear so that what -goes in at the other shall not be lost.” - -“I only want to say that the plans and good times spoiled by the -children are what ruin every promising generation. The child should -be taught, but instead of that he is only restrained. He should be -encouraged to learn the meaning and the essence of whatever of the -inevitable is forced upon him from year to year; but he soon learns -that children’s questions are as unwelcome as tax-collectors or -lightning-rod men. It’s astonishing how few hints are necessary to give -a child the habit of retiring into himself, and from there to such -company as he can find to tolerate him.” - -“You needn’t fear for your boys, Tom,” said Mr. Burton. “I’d pay -handsomely for the discovery of a single question which they have ever -wanted to ask but refrained from putting.” - -“And what myriads of them they can ask--not that there’s anything -wrong about it, the little darlings,” Mrs. Burton added. - -“I am glad of it,” said Tom; “but I hope they’ll never again have to go -to any one but their mother and me for information.” - -“Tom, there you go again!” said Mrs. Burton. “Please don’t believe I -ever refused them an answer or answered unkindly.” - -“Certainly you haven’t,” said Tom. “Excuse a stale quotation--’the -exception proves the rule.’s I’ve really been nervously anxious about -the soundness of this rule, until you were brought into the family, for -I never knew another exception.” - -“May I humbly suggest that a certain brother-in-law existed before the -boys had an Aunt Alice?” asked Mr. Burton. - -“Oh, yes,” said Tom; “but he was too well rewarded, for the little he -did, to be worthy of consideration.” - -Mrs. Burton inclined her head in acknowledgment of her brother-in-law’s -compliment, and asked: - -“Do you think all children’s questions are put with any distinct -intention? Don’t you imagine that they ask a great many because they -don’t know what else to do, or because they want to--to----” - -“To talk against time, she means, Tom,” said Mr. Burton. - -“Very likely. But the answers are what are of consequence, no matter -what the motive of the questions may be.” - -“What an idea!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton; “really, Tom, aren’t you afraid -you’re losing yourself?” - -“I really hadn’t noticed it,” said Tom; “but perhaps I may be able to -explain myself more clearly. You go to church?” - -“Regularly--every Sunday,” responded Mrs. Burton. - -“And always with the most reverent feelings, of course. You never find -your mind full of idle questionings, or mere curious wondering, or even -a perfect blank, or a circle upon which your thoughts chase themselves -around to their starting place without aim or motive?” - -“How well you know the ways of the hum-drum mind, Tom,” said Mrs. -Burton. “You didn’t learn them from your personal experience, of -course?” - -“I wish I hadn’t! But supposing you at some few times in your life have -gone into the sanctuary in such frames of mind, did you never have -them changed by what you’ve heard? Did you never have the very common -experience of learning that it is at these very moments of weakness, -indecision, blankness, childishness, or whatever you may please to call -it, the mind becomes peculiarly retentive of whatever of real value -happens to strike it?” - -Mrs. Burton reflected, and by silence signified her assent, but she was -not fully satisfied with the explanation, for she asked, - -“Do you think, then, that all the ways of children are just as they -should be?--that they never ask questions from any but heaven-ordained -motives?--that they are utterly devoid of petty guile?” - -“They’re human, I believe,” said Mr. Lawrence, “and full of human -weaknesses, but any other human beings--present company excepted, of -course--should know by experience how little malice there is in the -most annoying of people. Certainly children do copy the faults of their -elders, and--oh, woe is me! inherit the failings of their ancestors, -but it is astonishing how few they seem to have when the observer will -forget himself and honestly devote himself to their good. I confess it -does need the wisdom of Solomon to discover when they are honest and -when they’re inclined to be tricky.” - -“And can you inform us where the wisdom of Solomon is to be procured -for the purpose?” asked Mrs. Burton. - -“From the source at which Solomon obtained it, I suppose,” Tom replied; -“from an honest, unselfish mind. But it is so much easier to trust to -selfishness and its twin demon suspicion, that nothing but a pitying -Providence saves most children from reform schools and penitentiaries.” - -“But the superiority of adults--their right to demand implicit, -unquestioning obedience----” - -“Is the most vicious, debasing tyranny that the world is cursed by, -“Tom exclaimed with startling emphasis.” It gave the old Romans power -of life and death over their children. It cast some of the vilest blots -upon the pages of Holy Writ. Nowadays it is worse, for then it worked -its principal mischief upon the body, but nowadays ‘I say unto you fear -not them that kill the body, but’--excuse a free rendering--fear them -who cast both soul and body into hell. You’re orthodox, I believe.” - -Mrs. Burton shuddered, but her belief in the rights of adults, which -she had inherited from a line of ancestors reaching back to Adam or -protoplasm, was more powerful than her horror, and the latter was -quickly overcome by the former. - -“Then adults have no rights that children are bound to respect?” she -asked. - -“Yes; the right of undoing the failures of their own education and -doing it for the benefit of beings who are not responsible for their -own existence. Can you imagine a greater crime than calling a soul into -existence without its own desire and volition, and then making it your -slave instead of making yourself its friend?” - -“Why, Tom, you’re perfectly dreadful,” exclaimed Mrs. Burton.” One -would suppose that parents were a lot of pre-ordained monsters!” - -“They’re worse,” said Tom; “they’re unthinking people with a lot of -self-satisfaction, and a reputation for correctness of life. Malicious -people are easily caught and kept out of mischief by the law. The -respectable, unintentional evil-doers are those who make most of the -trouble and suffering in the world.” - -“And you propose to go through life dying deaths daily for the sake of -those children,” said Alice, “rather than make them what you would like -them to be?” - -“No,” said Tom, “I propose to live a new life daily, and learn what -life should be, for the sake of making them what I would like them to -be; for I don’t value them so much as conveniences and playthings, as -for what they may be to themselves, and to a world that sorely needs -good men.” - -“And women,” added Mrs. Lawrence. “I do believe you’ve forgotten the -baby, you heartless wretch!” - -“I accept the amendment,” said Tom, “but the world has already more -good women than it begins to appreciate.” - -“Bless me! what a quantity of governing that poor sister-baby will -get!” said Mrs. Burton. “But, of course, you don’t call it governing; -you’ll denominate it self-immolation; you’ll lose your remaining hair, -and grow ten years older in the first year of its life.” - -“I shouldn’t wonder,” said Tom, with an expression of countenance which -banished the smiles occasioned by his sister-in-law’ remark. - -“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton; “is there any more?” - -“Only this--it’s positively the last--’and, finally, we then that are -strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please -ourselves.’s Again I would remark, that I believe you’re orthodox?” - -The Burtons looked very sober for a moment, when suddenly there came -through the air the cry-- - -“Pa-_pa_!” - -Tom sprang to his feet; Helen looked anxious, and the Burtons smiled -quietly at each other. The cry was repeated, and louder, and as Tom -opened the door a little figure in white appeared. - -[Illustration: MAKING THEM WHAT I WOULD LIKE THEM TO BE] - -“I can’t get to sleep,” said Budge, shielding his eyes a moment from -the light. “I ain’t seen you for so long that I’e got to sit in your -lap till some sleep will come to me.” - -“Come to auntie, Budge,” said Mrs. Burton. “Poor papa is real tired; -you can’t imagine the terrible work he’s been at for an hour.” - -“Papa says it rests him to rest me,” said Budge, clasping his father -tightly. - -The Burtons looked on with quiet amusement, until there arose another -cry in the hall of-- - -“Papa! Ow! pa-pa!” - -Again Tom hurried to the door, this time with Budge clinging around -his neck. As the door opened, Toddie crept in on his hands and knees, -exclaiming: - -“De old bed wazh all empty, only ’cept me, an’ I kwawled down de -stepsh ’cauzh I didn’t want to be loneshome no more. And Ize all empty -too, and I wantsh somefin’ to eat.” - -Helen went to the dining-room closet and brought in a piece of light -cake. - -“There goes all my good instructions,” groaned Mrs. Burton. “To think -of the industry with which I have always labored to teach those -children that it’s injurious to eat between meals, and, worse yet, to -eat cake!” - -“And to think of how you always ended by letting the children have -their own way!” added Mr. Burton. - -“Eating between meals is the least of two evils,” said Tom. “When -a small boy is kept in bed with a sprained ankle, and on a short -allowance of food---- Oh, dear! I see my subject nosing around again, -Alice. Do you know that most of the wickednesses of children come from -the lack of proper attention to their physical condition?” - -“Save me! Pity me!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “I’m convinced already that -I don’t know a single thing about children, and I’ll know still less if -I take another lesson to-day.” - -“Izh you takin’ lessons, Aunt Alish?” asked Toddie, who had caught a -fragment of the conversation. “What book is you lynin’ fwom?” - -“A primer,” replied Mrs. Burton; “the very smallest, most insignificant -of A B C books.” - -“Why, can’t you read?” asked Budge. - -“Oh, yes,” sighed Mrs. Burton. “’But whether there be knowledge it -shall vanish away.’” - -“’But love never faileth,’” responded Mr. Lawrence. - -“If you want to learn anythin’,” said Budge, “just you ask my papa. -He’ll make you know all about it, no matter how awful stupid you are.” - -“Many thanks for the advice--and the insinuations,” said Mrs. Burton. -“I feel as if the latter were specially pertinent, from the daze my -head is in. I never knew before how necessary it was to be nobody in -order to be somebody.” - -The boys took possession of their father, one on each knee, and Tom -rocked with them and chatted in a low tone to them, and hummed a tune, -and finally broke into a song, and as it happened to be one of the -variety known as “roaring,” his brother-in-law joined him, and the air -recalled old friends and old associations, and both voices grew louder, -and the ladies caught the air and increased its volume with their own -voices, when suddenly a very shrill thin voice was heard above their -heads, and Mrs. Lawrence exclaimed: - -“Sh--h--h! The baby is awake.” - -Subsequent sounds indicated beyond doubt that Mrs. Lawrence was correct -in her supposition, and she started instinctively for the upper floor, -but found herself arrested by her husband’s arm and anxious face, while -Mrs. Burton exclaimed, - -“Oh, bring it down here! Please, do!” - -The nurse was summoned, and soon appeared with a wee bundle of -flannel, linen, pink face and fingers. - -“Give her to me!” exclaimed Mrs. Burton, rising to take the baby, but -the baby exclaimed “Ah!” and its mother snatched it. Then the baby did -its best to hide in its mother’s bosom, and its mother did her best -to help it, and by the merest chance a rosy little foot escaped from -its covering, seeing which Mrs. Burton hurriedly moved her chair and -covered the foot with both her hands; though it would have been equally -convenient and far less laborious to have tucked the foot back among -its habitual wrappings. Then the boys had to be moved nearer the baby, -so that they could touch it, and try to persuade it to coo; and Harry -Burton found himself sitting so far from any one else that he drew -his chair closer to the group, just to be sociable; and the Lawrences -grew gradually to look very happy, while the Burtons grew more and -more solemn, and at last the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Burton met under -the superabundant wraps of the baby, and then their eyes met, and the -lady’s eyes were full of tears and her husband’s full of tenderness, -and Budge, who had taken in the whole scene, broke the silence by -remarking; - -“Why, Aunt Alice, what are you crying for?” - -Then every one looked up and looked awkward, until Mrs. Lawrence leaned -over the baby and kissed her sister-in-law, noticing which the two men -rose abruptly, although Tom Lawrence found occasion to indulge in the -ceremony of taking Harry Burton by the hand. Then the baby yielded -to her aunt’ solicitations, and changed her resting-place for a few -moments, and the gentlemen were informed that if they wanted to smoke -they would have to do it in the dining-room, for Mrs. Lawrence was not -yet able to bear it. Then the gentlemen adjourned and stared at each -other as awkwardly over their cigars as if they had never met before, -and the ladies chatted as confidentially as if they were twin sisters -that had never been separated, and the boys were carried back to bed, -one by each gentleman, and they were re-kissed good night, and their -father and uncle were departing when Toddie remarked, - -“Papa, mamma hazhn’t gived our sister-baby to Aunt Alish to keep, hazh -she?” - -“No, old chap,” said Tom. - -“I don’t want anybody to have that sister-baby but us,” said Budge; -“but if anybody had to, Aunt Alice would be the person. Do you know, I -believe she was prayin’ to it, she looked so funny.” - -[Illustration: A LITTLE VISITOR AT THE BURTONS’] - -The gentlemen winked at each other, and again Tom Lawrence took the -hand of his brother-in-law. Several months later, the apprehensions -of the boys were quieted by the appearance of a little visitor at the -Burtons’, who acted as if she had come to stay, and who in the course -of years cured Mrs. Burton of every assumption of the ability of -relatives to manage “Other People’s Children.” - - -THE END. - - - - -FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS - -Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. -Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked -beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, -postpaid. - - - BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK. By George Barr McCutcheon. With Color - Frontispiece and other illustrations by Harrison Fisher. 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Press._ - - THE GIRL FROM TIM’S PLACE. By Charles Clark Munn. With illustrations - by Frank T. Merrill. - -“Figuring in the pages of this story there are several strong -characters. Typical New England folk and an especially sturdy one, old -Cy Walker, through whose instrumentality Chip comes to happiness and -fortune. There is a chain of comedy, tragedy, pathos and love, which -makes a dramatic story.”--_Boston Herald._ - - THE LION AND THE MOUSE. A story of American Life. By Charles Klein, - and Arthur Hornblow. With illustrations by Stuart Travis, and Scenes - from the Play. - -The novel duplicated the success of the play; in fact the book is -greater than the play. A portentous clash of dominant personalities -that form the essence of the play are necessarily touched upon but -briefly in the short space of four acts. All this is narrated in the -novel with a wealth of fascinating and absorbing detail, making it one -of the most powerfully written and exciting works of fiction given to -the world in years. - - BARBARA WINSLOW, REBEL. By Elizabeth Ellis. With illustrations by John - Rae, and colored inlay cover. - -The following, taken from story, will best describe the heroine: A -TOAST: “To the bravest comrade in misfortune, the sweetest companion -in peace and at all times the most courageous of women.”--_Barbara -Winslow._ “A romantic story, buoyant, eventful, and in matters of love -exactly what the heart could desire.”--_New York Sun._ - - SUSAN. By Ernest Oldmeadow. With a color frontispiece by Frank - Haviland. Medalion in color on front cover. - -Lord Ruddington falls helplessly in love with Miss Langley, whom he -sees in one of her walks accompanied by her maid, Susan. Through a -misapprehension of personalities his lordship addresses a love missive -to the maid. Susan accepts in perfect good faith, and an epistolary -love-making goes on till they are disillusioned. It naturally makes a -droll and delightful little comedy; and is a story that is particularly -clever in the telling. - - WHEN PATTY WENT TO COLLEGE. By Jean Webster. With illustrations by C. - D. Williams. - -“The book is a treasure.”--_Chicago Daily News._ “Bright, whimsical, -and thoroughly entertaining.”--_Buffalo Express._ “One of the best -stories of life in a girl’s college that has ever been written.”--_N. -Y. Press._ “To any woman who has enjoyed the pleasures of a college -life this book cannot fail to bring back many sweet recollections; and -to those who have not been to college the wit, lightness, and charm of -Patty are sure to be no less delightful.”--_Public Opinion._ - - THE MASQUERADER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by - Clarence F. Underwood. - -“You can’t drop it till you have turned the last page.”--_Cleveland -Leader._ “Its very audacity of motive, of execution, of solution, -almost takes one’s breath away. The boldness of its denouement is -sublime.”--_Boston Transcript._ “The literary hit of a generation. -The best of it is the story deserves all its success. A masterly -story.”--_St. Louis Dispatch._ “The story is ingeniously told, and -cleverly constructed.”--_The Dial._ - - THE GAMBLER. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. With illustrations by John - Campbell. - -“Tells of a high strung young Irish woman who has a passion for -gambling, inherited from a long line of sporting ancestors. She has a -high sense of honor, too, and that causes complications. She is a very -human, lovable character, and love saves her.”--_N. Y. Times._ - - THE AFFAIR AT THE INN. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by - Martin Justice. - -“As superlatively clever in the writing as it is entertaining in -the reading. It is actual comedy of the most artistic sort, and it -is handled with a freshness and originality that is unquestionably -novel.”--_Boston Transcript._ “A feast of humor and good cheer, yet -subtly pervaded by special shades of feeling, fancy, tenderness, or -whimsicality. A merry thing in prose.”--_St. Louis Democrat._ - - ROSE O’ THE RIVER. By Kate Douglas Wiggin. With illustrations by - George Wright. - -“‘Rose o’ the River,’s a charming bit of sentiment, gracefully written -and deftly touched with a gentle humor. It is a dainty book--daintily -illustrated.”--_New York Tribune._ “A wholesome, bright, refreshing -story, an ideal book to give a young girl.”--_Chicago Record-Herald._ -“An idyllic story, replete with pathos and inimitable humor. As -story-telling it is perfection, and as portrait-painting it is true to -the life.”--_London Mail._ - - TILLIE: A Mennonite Maid. By Helen R. Martin. With illustrations by - Florence Scovel Shinn. - -The little “Mennonite Maid” who wanders through these pages is -something quite new in fiction. Tillie is hungry for books and beauty -and love; and she comes into her inheritance at the end. “Tillie is -faulty, sensitive, big-hearted, eminently human, and first, last and -always lovable. Her charm glows warmly, the story is well handled, the -characters skilfully developed.”--_The Book Buyer._ - - LADY ROSE’S DAUGHTER. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. With illustrations by - Howard Chandler Christy. - -“The most marvellous work of its wonderful author.”--_New York World._ -“We touch regions and attain altitudes which it is not given to the -ordinary novelist even to approach.”--_London Times._ “In no other -story has Mrs. Ward approached the brilliancy and vivacity of Lady -Rose’s Daughter.”--_North American Review._ - - THE BANKER AND THE BEAR. By Henry K. Webster. - -“An exciting and absorbing story.”--_New York Times._ “Intensely -thrilling in parts, but an unusually good story all through. There is a -love affair of real charm and most novel surroundings, there is a run -on the bank which is almost worth a year’s growth, and there is all -manner of exhilarating men and deeds which should bring the book into -high and permanent favor.”--_Chicago Evening Post._ - - -NATURE BOOKS - -With Colored Plates, and Photographs from Life. - - -BIRD NEIGHBORS. An Introductory Acquaintance with 150 Birds Commonly -Found in the Woods, Fields and Gardens About Our Homes. By Neltje -Blanchan. With an Introduction by John Burroughs, and many plates of -birds in natural colors. Large Quarto, size 7¾ × 10⅜, Cloth. Formerly -published at $2.00. Our special price, $1.00. - - As an aid to the elementary study of bird life nothing has ever been - published more satisfactory than this most successful of Nature Books. - This book makes the identification of our birds simple and positive, - even to the uninitiated, through certain unique features. I. All the - birds are grouped according to color, in the belief that a bird’s - coloring is the first and often the only characteristic noticed. II. - By another classification, the birds are grouped according to their - season. III. All the popular names by which a bird is known are - given both in the descriptions and the index. The colored plates are - the most beautiful and accurate ever given in a moderate-priced and - popular book. The most successful and widely sold Nature Book yet - published. - -BIRDS THAT HUNT AND ARE HUNTED. Life Histories of 170 Birds of Prey, -Game Birds and Water-Fowls. By Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by -G. O. Shields (Coquina). 24 photographic illustrations in color. Large -Quarto, size 7¾ × 10⅜. Formerly published at $2.00. Our special -price, $1.00. - - No work of its class has ever been issued that contains so much - valuable information, presented with such felicity and charm. The - colored plates are true to nature. By their aid alone any bird - illustrated may be readily identified. Sportsmen will especially - relish the twenty-four color plates which show the more important - birds in characteristic poses. They are probably the most valuable and - artistic pictures of the kind available to-day. - -NATURE’S GARDEN. An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their -Insect Visitors. 24 colored plates, and many other illustrations -photographed directly from nature. Text by Neltje Blanchan, Large -Quarto, size 7-3/4 × 10-3/8. Cloth. Formerly published at $3.00 net. -Our special price, $1.25. - - * * * * * - -Superb color portraits of many familiar flowers in their living tints, -and no less beautiful pictures in black and white of others--each -blossom photographed directly from nature--form an unrivaled series. By -their aid alone the novice can name the flowers met afield. - -Intimate life-histories of over five hundred species of wild flowers, -written in untechnical, vivid language, emphasize the marvelously -interesting and vital relationship existing between these flowers and -the special insect to which each is adapted. - -The flowers are divided into five color groups, because by this -arrangement any one with no knowledge of botany whatever can readily -identify the specimens met during a walk. The various popular names -by which each species is known, its preferred dwelling-place, months -of blooming and geographical distribution follow its description. -Lists of berry-bearing and other plants most conspicuous after the -flowering season, of such as grow together in different kinds of soil, -and finally of family groups arranged by that method of scientific -classification adopted by the International Botanical Congress which -has now superseded all others, combine to make “Nature’s Garden” an -indispensable guide. - - -FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS - -Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time. Library size. -Printed on excellent paper--most of them with illustrations of marked -beauty--and handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, -postpaid. - - - THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE. By Edith Elmer Wood. With illustrations by - Rufus Zogbaum. - -The standards and life of “the new navy” are breezily set forth with a -genuine ring impossible from the most gifted “outsider.” “The story of -the destruction of the ‘Maine,’s and of the Battle of Manila, are very -dramatic. The author is the daughter of one naval officer and the wife -of another. Naval folks will find much to interest them in ‘The Spirit -of the Service.’”--_The Book Buyer._ - - A SPECTRE OF POWER. By Charles Egbert Craddock. - -Miss Murfree has pictured Tennessee mountains and the mountain people -in striking colors and with dramatic vividness, but goes back to the -time of the struggles of the French and English in the early eighteenth -century for possession of the Cherokee territory. The story abounds in -adventure, mystery, peril and suspense. - - THE STORM CENTRE. By Charles Egbert Craddock. - -A war story; but more of flirtation, love and courtship than of -fighting or history. The tale is thoroughly readable and takes its -readers again into golden Tennessee, into the atmosphere which has -distinguished all of Miss Murfree’s novels. - - THE ADVENTURESS. By Coralie Stanton. With color frontispiece by - Harrison Fisher, and attractive inlay cover in colors. - -As a penalty for her crimes, her evil nature, her flint-like -callousness, her more than inhuman cruelty, her contempt for the laws -of God and man, she was condemned to bury her magnificent personality, -her transcendent beauty, her superhuman charms, in gilded obscurity at -a King’s left hand. A powerful story powerfully told. - - THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND. A Novel by Dwight Tilton. With illustrations by - E. Pollak. - -A thoroughly good story that keeps you guessing to the very end, and -never attempts to instruct or reform you. It is a strictly up-to-date -story of love and mystery with wireless telegraphy and all the modern -improvements. The events nearly all take place on a big Atlantic liner -and the romance of the deep is skilfully made to serve as a setting for -the romance, old as mankind, yet always new, involving our hero. - - - GROSSET & DUNLAP, NEW YORK - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Hyphenation -have been standardised except where it appears to have been used for -emphasis, but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. - -A table of contents has been added. - -Italics are represented thus _italic_ and bold thus =bold=. In the -following paragraph in Chapter III the Said has been added. - -“Oh, no, I won’t. I only said ’twas something to eat. But say, Aunt -Alice, how do bananas grow?” [said] Toddie, with brightening eyes and -a confident shake of his curly head. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Budge & Toddie, by John Habberton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUDGE & TODDIE *** - -***** This file should be named 52298-0.txt or 52298-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/2/9/52298/ - -Produced by David Edwards, Les Galloway and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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