disapproval that was in her
heart. Karl listened and took all in. A little while afterward Mrs.
Omdorff got up and rang the bell, saying, as she did so, with a short
gurgling laugh, that seemed ashamed of itself: "I guess we'll have a
little ice-cream--at Poole's expense."

Aunt Ruth shook her finger, and said feebly: "Oh, that's too bad!" But
Karl was not able to see whether she approved or disapproved. The
ice-cream was sent for, and enjoyed by the child. While the sweet
taste was yet on his tongue, he heard his mother say: "I'm very much
obliged to Poole for his treat--it's delicious."

Is it strange that the boy's perception of right and wrong should be
obscured? or that, in a day or two afterward, he should come in from
the street with an orange in his hand, and, on being questioned about
it, reply: "A woman let it drop from her basket, and I picked it up.
She didn't see it drop, mamma."

"But why didn't you call after her?" asked Aunt Ruth.

"'Cause I didn't want to," answered the child. "She dropped it. I
didn't knock it off."

Mrs. Omdorff was not satisfied with the conduct of her child; and yet
she was amused at what she called his cuteness, and laughed instead of
reproving him for an act that was in spirit a theft.

So the child's education for crime was begun--his ruin initiated. The
low moral sense of his mother was perpetually showing itself in some
disregard for others' rights. A mistake made in her favor was never
voluntarily corrected, and her pleasure at any gain of this kind was
rarely concealed. "He cheated himself," was a favorite saying, heard
by Karl almost every week; and as he grew older he understood its
meaning more clearly.

Mr. Omdorff was a man of higher integrity than his wife and just in
dealing to the smallest fraction. "Foolish about little things--more
nice than wise," as she often said, when he disapproved of her way of
doing things, as was sometimes the case. Mrs. Omdorff had learned to
be guarded in her speech when he was at home; and so he remained in
ignorance of the fatal perversions going on in the mind of his child.

As the boy grew up his father's supervision became more direct. He was
careful about his associates, and never permitted him to be away from
home without knowing where and with whom he was. He knew but too well
the danger of evil association; and guarded his boy with jealous
solicitude.

Alas! he dreamed not of the evil influences at home; never imagined