21. CHAPTER XXI.
A DOMESTIC SCENE.
“What is the matter?” said Munk, coming in to his
supper, and finding the children in a snarl.
“So much for gratifying the children!” replied his wife;
“Mrs. Mellow told me never to gratify children, and I always
told you it was not a good plan.”
“I hope there is no harm done,” rejoined Munk.
“Mamma made us two dough-nut babies,” said Memmy,
“and Bebby has eaten hers up, and now she wants mine.”
Indeed, she did want it, and screamed lustily for it.
“She may have the head,” said Memmy, — but that would
not do; it was the whole or nothing.
Munk, meanwhile, had taken his seat at the table, and
was stirring his tea, looking at the lumps of sugar as they
turned up in his spoon. Mrs. Munk put Bebby up to the
table in her high chair. The child wanted a cooky. “Eat
your bread and milk first,” enjoined the mother. The child
reached forward, and purloined the cooky. “Put it back!”
cried the mother. The child did not obey. “Put it
back!” the mother called out, still louder. The child delayed.
“Put it back!” the mother screamed. The child
yielded, and began to cry. “Stop your crying!” — so the
mother pursued her. “You shall be whipped! Asa, will
you take the child and whip her?” Asa relucted. “We
must be obeyed, — we must be firm,” — so the wife expostulated
and instructed, — “and I am too weak, you know I
am.” Munk was not moved. Again Bebby began to cry
for Memmy's dough-nut. “The children shall never have
another dough-nut in the world!” threatened their mother.
“Don't say so,” replied Munk.
“I shall go off!” bitterly exclaimed Roxy, and covered
her face with her apron.
“Don't do that,” said Munk.
“No, no, I may never do anything, only be crazed by the
children!”
“Yes, Roxy, you may do everything, — everything you
wish to do, everything you ought to do. Did n't you love
to make the dough-nuts for them?”
“I did; but we are not to be ruled by our affections, but
by a sense of duty, or we shall ruin the children. Have n't
I told you so before?”
“Were not you happy in doing what you did?”
“Surely I was. Memmy asked me, and Bebby pleaded
so, and I was happy; but I had no right to be. I yielded
to it, and this comes of it.”
The trouble of the parents only seemed to increase that
of the children, whose noise and altercation it became more
and more difficult to bear.
“Give her the whole,” said Munk to Memmy.
“That would not be right, I think,” interposed Richard.
“Bebby has not been very well to-day, and she has appeared
more fretful than ordinary. You had better look
into the matter, and see if it is not something besides the
dough-nut that ails her.”
“She ought to be whipped!” said Mrs. Munk. “Mrs.
Mellow says a whipping, now and then, does children good.”
“Don't say that again, will you, Roxy?” rejoined her
husband.
“Let me see what can be done,” added Richard. He
took the child into the rocking-chair, sang songs, and soon
had her fast asleep.
