s supper of bread and
butter, since he could find nothing more tempting to his appetite.

The fact was, Oscar was getting in the habit of being absent from his
meals, and calling for food at unseasonable hours, much to the
annoyance of Bridget. She had complained of this to his mother several
times, without effect; and now she thought she would try a little
expedient of her own. So, when she cleared away the supper-table that
evening, before Oscar came home, she hid away the cake and pies with
which the others had been served, and left only bread and butter in the
closet. She gained her end, but the boy, in rummaging for the hidden
articles, had made her half an hour's extra work, in putting things to
rights again.

As Oscar stepped out of the closet, after his solitary supper, he moved
towards the youngest of the other boys, saying:

"Here, George, open your mouth and shut your eyes, and I 'll give you
something to make you wise."

George declined the gift, but Oscar insisted, and tried to force it
upon him. A struggle ensued, and both rolled upon the floor, the one
crying and screaming with anger, and the other laughing as though he
considered it good fun. George shut his teeth firmly together, but
Oscar succeeded in rubbing enough of the mysterious article upon his
lips to enable him to tell what it was. It proved to be a piece of
pepper, a plate of which Oscar had found in the closet.

This little experiment, however, did not leave George in a very
pleasant frame of mind. It was some time before he got over his
blubbering and pouting. Oscar called him a "cry-baby," for making such
a fuss about a little bit of pepper, which epithet did not aid him much
in forgetting the injury he had received.

After awhile, quiet and harmony were in a measure restored. Ralph and
George got their school-books, and began to look over the lessons they
were to recite in the morning; but Oscar not only remained idle,
himself, but seemed to try to interrupt them as much as possible, by
his remarks. By-and-bye, finding they did not take much notice of his
observations, he took from his jacket pocket a small tin tube, and
commenced blowing peas through it, aiming them at his brothers, at
Bridget, and at the lamp. Ralph, after two or three had taken effect
on his face, got up in a pet, and took his book up stairs to the
sitting-room. George scowled and scolded, as the annoying pellets flew
around his head, but he did not m