ie; both the men and the letters, at the post-office
to-night. There were many others,--a dozen or more,--and they were, one
and all, extremely angry at the letters they had received. Mr. Fulton
and I were both there, and, when we were told that the letters were the
work of our children, we could scarcely believe it."

"And we thought you'd be so proud of us," said Kitty, in such a dejected
voice that Mrs. Maynard caught up the little girl and held her in her
arms.

Of course, this was the first Mrs. Maynard had heard of the whole
affair, but, as Mr. Maynard was conducting the discussion, she said
little.

"What ought we to have done, Father?" said King, who was beginning to
see that they had done wrong.

"When you first thought of the plan, my son, you should have realized
that it concerned grown people entirely; and that, therefore, before you
children undertook its responsibilities you should confer with your
mother or me. Surely you see that point?"

"Yes, sir," said the boy.

"When your plans include only children, and are not disobedience to
rules either actual and implied, then you are usually free to do pretty
much as you like."

"But we thought this would do the town good."

"That was a worthy sentiment, and a true one, too. But the matter of a
town improvement is not a matter for children to attend to, _unless_
they are working under the direction of older people. Had I advised you
to write these letters, which, of course, I never should have done, for
you are not the proper ones to write them, but had I done so, I would
have shown you how to word them that they might not offend.
Inexperienced letter-writers cannot expect to write a sort of letter
which requires special delicacy, tact, and graciousness."

"Father," said Marjorie, solemnly, "I'm never going to do anything
again, but go to school and eat my meals and go to bed. Anything else I
ever do is wrong."

"Now, Mopsy Midget, don't talk nonsense. You're twelve years old. You've
a lot to learn before you're a grown-up, and most of it must be learned
by experience. If you never do anything, you'll never get any
experience, and at twenty you'll only know as much as you did at twelve!
How would you like that?"

"Not much," said Marjorie, whose spirits rose as her father adopted a
lighter tone.

"Then just go on and have your experiences. Cut up jinks and have all
the fun you can; but try to learn as you go along to discriminate
between the th