ly through love, and they are so accustomed
to my methods that they bitterly resent any interference by outsiders.
Why, just before we came here, Ebbie, young as he is, put out the left eye
of a woman who tried to take his dog away from him. He did it with his
little fist and with apparently no effort at all. Is it not wonderful to
see such strength and power of direction in one so young? The woman was in
the hospital when we came away, and I trust by this time, she has learned
not to interfere with Ebbie. No one is allowed to interfere with my
children."

"Apparently not," remarked Mrs. Carr, somewhat cynically.

"It is beautiful to be a mother--the most beautiful thing on earth! Just
think how much I have done for the world!" Her sallow face glowed with the
conscious virtue bestowed by one of the animal functions upon those who
have performed it.

"In what way?" queried Mrs. Carr, wholly missing the point.

"Why, in raising Willie and Ebbie and Rebbie! No public service can for a
moment be compared with that! All other things sink into insignificance
beside the glorious gift of maternity. Look at Willie--a form that a
sculptor might dream of for a lifetime and never hope to imitate--a head
that already has inspired great artists! The gentleman who took Willie's
last tintype said that he had never seen such perfect lines, and insisted
on taking several for fear something should happen to Willie. He wanted to
keep some of them for himself--it was pathetic, the way he pleaded, but I
made him sell me all of them. Willie is mine and I have the first right to
his tintypes. And a lady once painted Willie at his play in black and
white and sent it to one of the popular weeklies. I have no doubt they
gave her a fortune for it, but it never occurred to her to give us
anything more than one copy of the paper."

"Which paper was it?"

"One of the so-called comic weeklies. You know they publish superb
artistic things. I think they are doing a wonderful work in educating the
masses to a true appreciation of art. One of the wonderful parts of it was
that Willie knew all about it and was not in the least conceited. Any
other child would have been set up at being a model for a great artist,
but Willie was not affected at all. He has so much character!"

At this point the small Rebecca entered, dragging her doll by one arm, and
munching a thick slice of bread, thinly coated with molasses.

"I distinctly said jam," remarked Mrs.