"
"He was on the lot playing marbles--and I've had such a time to get him
home. Just look at his knees; they are worn through. And only think,
mother, the tea was lying on the ground, and might have been carried off,
if I had not happened to come that way. And then he has been fighting and
struggling with me all the way home. See," continued she, baring her arm,
"just look how he has scratched me," and as she spoke she held out the
injured member for her mother's inspection.
"Mother," said Charlie, in his justification, "she began to beat me before
all the boys, before I had said a word to her, and I wasn't going to stand
that. She is always storming at me. She don't give me any peace of my
life."
"Oh yes, mother," here interposed Esther; "Cad is too cross to him. I must
say, that he would not be as bad as he is, if she would only let him
alone."
"Esther, please hush now; you have nothing to do with their quarrels. I'll
settle all their differences. You always take his part whether he be right
or wrong. I shall send him to bed without his tea, and to-morrow I will
take his marbles from him; and if I see his knees showing through his pants
again, I'll put a red patch on them--that's what I'll do. Now, sir, go to
bed, and don't let me hear of you until morning.
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