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PUNISHMENT

Punishment is a very puzzly thing, but I believe in it when
really deserved, only when I punish myself it does not always
turn out well. When I leaned over the new bridge, and got my
dress all paint, and Aunt Sarah Cobb couldn't get it out, I had
to wear it spotted for six months which hurt my pride, but was
right. I stayed at home from Alice Robinson's birthday party for
a punishment, and went to the circus next day instead, but
Alice's parties are very cold and stiff, as Mrs. Robinson makes
the boys stand on newspapers if they come inside the door, and
the blinds are always shut, and Mrs. Robinson tells me how bad
her liver complaint is this year. So I thought, to pay for the
circus and a few other things, I ought to get more punishment,
and I threw my pink parasol down the well, as the mothers in the
missionary books throw their infants to the crocodiles in the
Ganges river. But it got stuck in the chain that holds the
bucket, and Aunt Miranda had to get Abijah Flagg to take out all
the broken bits before we could ring up water.

I punished myself this way because Aunt Miranda said that unless
I improved I would be nothing but a Burden and a Blight.

There was an old man used to go by our farm carrying a lot of
broken chairs to bottom, and mother used to say--"Poor man! His
back is too weak for such a burden!" and I used to take him out a
doughnut, and this is the part I want to go into the