Driven Back to Eden | Page 4

do try to be
patient, but I know I'm growing cross!"
"Oh now, mamma," spoke up warm-hearted Merton; "the idea of your
being cross."
"She IS cross," Bobsey cried; "she boxed my ears this very day."
"And you deserved it," was Merton's retort. "It's a pity they are not
boxed oftener."
"Yes, Robert, I did," continued my wife, sorrowfully. "Bobsey ran
away four times, and vexed me beyond endurance, that is, such
endurance as I have left, which doesn't seem to be very much."
"I understand, dear," I said. "You are a part of my problem, and you
must help me solve it." Then I changed the subject decidedly, and soon
brought sunshine to our clouded household. Children's minds are easily
diverted; and my wife, whom a few sharp words would have greatly
irritated, was soothed, and her curiosity awakened as to the subject of

my thoughts.

CHAPTER II
I STATE THE CASE
I pondered deeply while my wife and Winnie cleared away the dishes
and put Bobsey into his little crib. I felt that the time for a decided
change had come, and that it should be made before the evils of our lot
brought sharp and real trouble.
How should I care for my household? If I had been living on a far
frontier among hostile Indians I should have known better how to
protect them. I could build a house of heavy logs and keep my wife and
children always near me while at work. But it seemed to me that
Melissa Daggett and her kin with their flashy papers, and the influence
of the street for Merton and Bobsey, involved more danger to my little
band than all the scalping Modocs that ever whooped. The children
could not step outside the door without danger of meeting some one
who would do them harm. It is the curse of crowded city life that there
is so little of a natural and attractive sort for a child to do, and so much
of evil close at hand.
My wife asked me humorously for the news. She saw that I was not
reading my paper, and my frowning brow and firm lips proved my
problem was not of a trifling nature. She suspected nothing more,
however, than that I was thinking of taking rooms in some better
locality, and she was wondering how I could do it, for she knew that
my income now left but a small surplus above expenses.
At last Winnie too was ready to go to bed, and I said to her, gravely:
"Here is money to pay Melissa for that paper. It was only fit for the
gutter, and into the gutter I put it. I wish you to promise me never to
look at such pictures again, or you can never hope to grow up to be a
lady like mamma."

The child flushed deeply, and went tearful and penitent to bed. Mousie
also retired with a wistful look upon her face, for she saw that
something of grave importance occupied my mind.
No matter how tired my wife might be, she was never satisfied to sit
down until the room had been put in order, a green cloth spread upon
the supper-table and the student lamp placed in its centre.
Merton brought his school-books, and my wife took up her mending,
and we three sat down within the circle of light.
"Don't do any more work to-night," I said, looking into my wife's face,
and noting for a few moments that it was losing its rounded lines.
Her hands dropped wearily into her lap, and she began gratefully: "I'm
glad you speak so kindly to-night, Robert, for I am so nervous and out
of sorts that I couldn't have stood one bit of fault- finding--I should
have said things, and then have been sorry all day to-morrow. Dear
knows, each day brings enough without carrying anything over. Come,
read the paper to me, or tell me what you have been thinking about so
deeply, if you don't mind Merton's hearing you. I wish to forget myself,
and work, and everything that worries me, for a little while."
"I'll read the paper first, and then, after Merton has learned his lessons,
I will tell you my thoughts--my purpose, I may almost say. Merton
shall know about it soon, for he is becoming old enough to understand
the 'why' of things. I hope, my boy, that your teacher lays a good deal
of stress on the WHY in all your studies."
"Oh, yes, after a fashion."
"Well, so far as I am your teacher, Merton, I wish you always to think
why you should do a thing or why you shouldn't, and to try not to be
satisfied with any reason but a good one."