room; observed the cock which
supplied his father's bath with water; and instantly resolved to flood
the house. He had set the water going in the bath, had filled it to
the brim, and was anxiously waiting, perched up on a chair, to see it
overflow--when his mother unlocked the dressing-room door, and entered
the room.

"Oh, you naughty, wicked, shocking child!" cried Mrs. Thorpe, horrified
at what she beheld, but instantly stopping the threatened deluge from
motives of precaution connected with the drawing-room ceiling. "Oh,
Zack! Zack! what will you do next? What _would_ your papa say if he
heard of this? You wicked, wicked, wicked child, I'm ashamed to look at
you!"

And, in very truth, Zack offered at that moment a sufficiently
disheartening spectacle for a mother's eyes to dwell on. There stood the
young imp, sturdy and upright in his chair, wriggling his shoulders in
and out of his frock, and holding his hands behind him in unconscious
imitation of the favorite action of Napoleon the Great. His light hair
was all rumpled down over his forehead; his lips were swelled; his nose
was red; and from his bright blue eyes Rebellion looked out frankly
mischievous, amid a surrounding halo of dirt and tears, rubbed circular
by his knuckles. After gazing on her son in mute despair for a minute
or so, Mrs. Thorpe took the only course that was immediately open to
her--or, in other words, took the child off the chair.

"Have you learnt your lesson, you wicked boy?" she asked.

"No, I havn't," answered Zack, resolutely.

"Then come to the table with me: your papa's waiting to hear you. Come
here and learn your lesson directly," said Mrs. Thorpe, leading the way
to the table.

"I won't!" rejoined Zack, emphasizing the refusal by laying tight hold
of the wet sides of the bath with both hands.

It was lucky for this rebel of six years old that he addressed those
two words to his mother only. If his nurse had heard them, she would
instantly have employed that old-established resource in all educational
difficulties, familiarly known to persons of her condition under the
appellation of "a smack on the head;" if Mr. Thorpe had heard them, the
boy would have been sternly torn away, bound to the back of a chair, and
placed ignominiously with his chin against the table; if Mr. Goodworth
had heard them, the probability is that he would instantly have lost his
temper, and soused his grandson head over ears in the bath. Not one of
th