, my love; you know what's the letter B. Now don't you?"

"Yes," replied Johnny.

"There, Mr Easy, you see what the boy knows, and how obedient he is
too. Come, Johnny dear, tell us what was B."

"No, I won't," replied Johnny, "I want some more sugar;" and Johnny, who
had climbed on a chair, spread himself over the table to reach it.

"Mercy! Sarah, pull him off--he'll upset the urn," screamed Mrs Easy.
Sarah caught hold of Johnny by the loins to pull him back, but Johnny,
resisting the interference, turned round on his back as he lay on the
table, and kicked Sarah in the face, just as she made another desperate
grasp at him. The rebound from the kick, given as he lay on a smooth
mahogany table, brought Johnny's head in contact with the urn, which was
upset in the opposite direction, and, notwithstanding a rapid movement
on the part of Mr Easy, he received a sufficient portion of boiling
liquid on his legs to scald him severely, and induce him to stamp and
swear in a very unphilosophical way. In the meantime Sarah and Mrs
Easy had caught up Johnny, and were both holding him at the same time,
exclaiming and lamenting. The pain of the scald and the indifference
shown towards him were too much for Mr Easy's temper to put up with.
He snatched Johnny out of their arms, and, quite forgetting his equality
and rights of man, belaboured him without mercy. Sarah flew in to
interfere, and received a blow which not only made her see a thousand
stars, but sent her reeling on the floor. Mrs Easy went off into
hysterics, and Johnny howled so as to be heard at a quarter of a mile.

How long Mr Easy would have continued it is impossible to say; but the
door opened, and Mr Easy looked up while still administering the
punishment, and perceived Dr Middleton in mute astonishment. He had
promised to come in to tea, and enforce Mr Easy's arguments, if it were
necessary; but it certainly appeared to him that in the argument which
Mr Easy was then enforcing, he required no assistance. However, at the
entrance of Dr Middleton, Johnny was dropped, and lay roaring on the
floor; Sarah, too, remained where she had been floored, Mrs Easy had
rolled on the floor, the urn was also on the floor, and Mr Easy,
although not floored, had not a leg to stand upon.

Never did a medical man look in more opportunely. Mr Easy at first was
not certainly of that opinion, but his legs became so painful that he
soon became a convert.

Dr Middleton,