their
father would have spoilt them, for he's no more idea of discipline than
a child." And Aunt Jane gave her own palm a smart rap with her closed
fan, emphasizing the word "thoroughly" in a most suggestive manner.

"I've often wished I had your firmness, Jane but after all, I'm not sure
that I don't like my own way best, at least with my boys, for plenty of
love, and plenty of patience, seem to have succeeded pretty well."
And Aunt Jessie lifted the nosegay from her lap, feeling as if that
unfailing love and patience were already blooming into her life as
beautifully as the sweet-breathed roses given by her boy refreshed and
brightened these long hours of patient waiting in a corner.

"I don't deny that you've done well, Jessie, but you've been let alone
and had no one to hold your hand or interfere. If my Mac had gone to sea
as your Jem did, I never should have been as severe as I am. Men are so
perverse and shortsighted, they don't trouble about the future as long
as things are quiet and comfortable in the present," continued Mrs.
Jane, quite forgetting that the shortsighted partner of the firm,
physically speaking at least, was herself.

"Ah, yes! We mothers love to foresee and foretell our children's lives
even before they are born, and are very apt to be disappointed if they
do not turn out as we planned. I know I am yet I really have no cause to
complain and am learning to see that all we can do is to give the dear
boys good principles and the best training we may, then leave them
to finish what we have begun." And Mrs. Jessie's eye wandered away to
Archie, dancing with Rose, quite unconscious what a pretty little castle
in the air tumbled down when he fell in love with Phebe.

"Right, quite right on that point we agree exactly. I have spared
nothing to give my boys good principles and good habits, and I am
willing to trust them anywhere. Nine times did I whip my Steve to cure
him of fibbing, and over and over again did Mac go without his dinner
rather than wash his hands. But I whipped and starved them both into
obedience, and now I have my reward," concluded the "stern parent" with
a proud wave of the fan, which looked very like a ferule, being as big,
hard, and uncompromising as such an article could be.

Mrs. Jessie gave a mild murmur of assent, but could not help thinking,
with a smile, that in spite of their early tribulations the sins for
which the boys suffered had gotten a little mixed in their res