see repeated many times before he is forever cured of interrupting, of
pulling his mother's gown, of drumming on the piano, &c.,--of the thousand
and one things which able-bodied children can do to make social visiting
where they are a martyrdom and a penance.

Once I saw this same little boy behave so boisterously and rudely at the
dinner-table, in the presence of guests, that I said to myself, "Surely,
this time she will have to break her rule, and reprove him publicly." I
saw several telegraphic signals of rebuke, entreaty, and warning flash
from her gentle eyes to his; but nothing did any good. Nature was too much
for him; he could not at that minute force himself to be quiet. Presently
she said, in a perfectly easy and natural tone, "Oh, Charley, come here a
minute; I want to tell you something." No one at the table supposed that
it had any thing to do with his bad behavior. She did not intend that they
should. As she whispered to him, I alone saw his cheek flush, and that he
looked quickly and imploringly into her face; I alone saw that tears were
almost in her eyes. But she shook her head, and he went back to his seat
with a manful but very red little face. In a few moments he laid down his
knife and fork, and said, "Mamma, will you please to excuse me?"
"Certainly, my dear," said she. Nobody but I understood it, or observed
that the little fellow had to run very fast to get out of the room without
crying. Afterward she told me that she never sent a child away from the
table in any other way. "But what would you do," said I, "if he were to
refuse to ask to be excused?" Then the tears stood full in her eyes. "Do
you think he could," she replied, "when he sees that I am only trying to
save him from pain?" In the evening, Charley sat in my lap, and was very
sober. At last he whispered to me, "I'll tell you an awful secret, if you
won't tell. Did you think I had done my dinner this afternoon when I got
excused? Well, I hadn't. Mamma made me, because I acted so. That's the way
she always does. But I haven't had to have it done to me before for ever