“She’d no business to forget it.  I’ve no idea of my children being used after this fashion.  The boy that made them laugh should have been kept in, if any punishment had to be inflicted.  But it’s the way with cruel-minded people.  The weakest are always chosen as objects of their dislike.”

“I am sure you take this little matter too much to heart,” urged the mother.  “Miss Roberts must have order in her school, and even the youngest must conform to this order.  I do not think the punishment so severe.  She had to do something to make them remember their fault, and restrain their feelings in future; and she could hardly have done less.  It is not too young for them to learn obedience in any position where they are introduced.”

But the over fond and tender father could see no reason for the punishment his little ones had received; and would not consent to let them go again to the school of Miss Roberts.  To him they were earth’s most precious things.  They were tender flowers; and he was troubled if ever the winds blew roughly upon them.

Seven years have passed.  Let us visit the home of Mr. Warren and look at him among his children.  No; we will not enter this pleasant house—­he moved away long ago.  Can this be the home of Mr. Warren!  Yes.  Small, poor, and comfortless as it is!  Ah! there have been sad changes.

Let us enter.  Can that be Warren?  That wretched looking creature—­with swollen, disfigured face and soiled garments—­who sits, half stupid, near the window?  A little flaxen-haired child is playing on the floor.  It is not Anna.  No; seven years have changed her from the fairylike little creature she was when her father became outraged at her punishment in Miss Roberts’ school!  Poor Anna!  That was light as the thistle down to what she has since received from the hands of her father.  The child on the floor is beautiful, even in her tattered clothes.  She has been playing for some time.  Now her father calls to her in a rough, grumbling voice.

“Kate!  You, Kate, I say!”

Little Kate, not five years old, leaves her play and goes up to where her parent is sitting.

“Go and get me a drink of water,” said he in a harsh tone of authority.

Kate takes a tin cup from a table and goes to the hydrant in the yard.  So pleased is she in seeing the water run, that she forgets her errand.  Three or four times she fills the cup, and then pours forth its contents, dipping her tiny feet in the stream that is made.  In the midst of her sport, she hears an angry call, and remembering the errand upon which she has been sent, hurriedly fills her cup again and bears it to her father.  She is frightened as she comes in and sees his face; this confuses her; her foot catches in something as she approaches, and she falls over, spilling the cup of water on his clothes.  Angrily he catches her up, and, cruel in his passion, strikes her three or four heavy blows.