was nothing you or I could do
to get him down to a basis, but thought Hagenbeck might accomplish
something."

"No doubt he thought that," cried Bessie. "No doubt everybody
thought that, but it wasn't entirely Teddy's fault. If there is
anything in the world that is well calculated to demoralize an
active-minded, able-bodied child, it is hotel life. Teddy was egged
on to all sorts of indiscretions by everybody in the hotel, from the
bell-boys up. If he'd stand on his head on the cashier's desk, the
cashier would laugh first, and then, to get rid of him, would suggest
that he go into the dining-room and play with the headwaiter; and
when he upset the contents of his bait-box in Mrs. Harkaway's lap,
she interfered when I scolded him, and said she liked it. What can
you do when people talk that way?"

"Get him to upset his bait-box in her lap again," said Thaddeus. "I
think if he had been encouraged to do that as a regular thing, every
morning for a week, she'd have changed her tune."

"Well, it all goes to prove one thing," said Mrs. Perkins, "and that
is, Teddy needs more care than we can give him personally. We are
too lenient. Whenever you start in to punish him it ends up with a
game; when I do it, and he says something funny, as he always does,
I have to laugh."

"How about the ounce-of-prevention idea?" suggested Thaddeus.
"We've let him go without a nurse for a year now--why can't we
employ a maid to look after him--not to boss him, but to keep an eye
on him--to advise him, and, in case he declines to accept the
advice, to communicate with us at once? All he needs is directed
occupation. As he is at present, he directs his own occupation,
with the result that the things he does are of an impossible sort."

"That means another servant for me to manage," sighed Mrs. Perkins.

"True; but a servant is easier to manage than Teddy. You can
discharge a servant if she becomes impossible. We've got Teddy for
keeps," said Thaddeus.

"Very well--so be it," said Mrs. Perkins. "You are right, I guess,
about school. He ought not to be forced, and I'd be worried about
him all the time he was away, anyhow."

So it was decided that Teddy should have a nurse, and for a day or
two the subject was dropped. Later on Mrs. Perkins reopened it.

"I've been thinking all day about Teddy's nurse, Thaddeus," she
said, one evening after dinner. "I think it would be nice if we got
him a French nurse. Then he could le