With clouded brows we sat down to our modest little supper.  Winifred, my wife, was hot and flushed from too near acquaintance with the stove, and wearied by a long day of toil in a room that would be the better for a gale of wind.  Bobsey, as we called my little namesake, was absorbed—­now that he was relieved from the fear of punishment—­by the wish to “punch” the boy who had tripped him up.  Winnie was watching me furtively, and wondering what had become of the paper, and what I thought of it.  Merton was somewhat sullen, and a little ashamed of himself.  I felt that my problem was to give these children something to do that would not harm them, for do something they certainly would.  They were rapidly attaining that age when the shelter of a narrow city flat would not answer, when the influence of a crowded house and of the street might be greater than any we could bring to bear upon them.

I looked around upon the little group for whom I was responsible.  My will was still law to them.  While my little wife had positive ways of her own, she would agree to any decided course that I resolved upon.  The children were yet under entire control, so that I sat at the head of the table, commander-in-chief of the little band.  We called the narrow flat we lived in “home.”  The idea! with the Daggetts above and the Ricketts on the floor beneath.  It was not a home, and was scarcely a fit camping-ground for such a family squad as ours.  Yet we had stayed on for years in this long, narrow line of rooms, reaching from a crowded street to a little back-yard full of noisy children by day, and noisier cats by night.  I had often thought of moving, but had failed to find a better shelter that was within my very limited means.  The neighborhood was respectable, so far as a densely populated region can be.  It was not very distant from my place of business, and my work often kept me so late at the office that we could not live in the suburb.  The rent was moderate for New York, and left me some money, after food and clothing were provided, for occasional little outings and pleasures, which I believe to be needed by both body and mind.  While the children were little—­so long as they would “stay put” in the cradle or on the floor—­we did not have much trouble.  Fortunately I had good health, and, as my wife said, was “handy with children.”  Therefore I could help her in the care of them at night, and she had kept much of her youthful bloom.  Heaven had blessed us.  We had met with no serious misfortunes, nor had any of our number been often prostrated by prolonged and dangerous illness.  But during the last year my wife had been growing thin, and occasionally her voice had a sharpness which was new.  Every month Bobsey became more hard to manage.  Our living-room was to him like a cage to a wild bird, and slip away he would, to his mother’s alarm; for he was almost certain to get into mischief or trouble.  The effort to perform her household tasks and watch over him was more wearing than it had been to rock him through long hours at night when he was a teething baby.  These details seem very homely no doubt, yet such as these largely make up our lives.  Comfort or discomfort, happiness or unhappiness, springs from them.  There is no crop in the country so important as that of boys and girls.  How could I manage my little home-garden in a flat?