"Ah, well! of course, you'll laugh at me. Theodore always laughs at me
when I get on what he calls a high horse. I wonder whether you are as
sensible as he is?"

Harry reflected that he never wore cotton gloves. "I don't think I am
very sensible," said he. I do a great many foolish things, and the worst
is, that I like them."

"So do I. I like so many foolish things."

"Oh, mamma!" said Cissy.

"I shall have that quoted against me, now, for the next six months,
whenever I am preaching wisdom in the nursery. But Florence is nearly as
sensible as her brother."

"Much more so than I am."

"All the Burtons are full up to their eyes with good sense. And what a
good thing it is! Who ever heard of any of them coming to sorrow?
Whatever they have to live on, they always have enough. Did you ever
know a woman who has done better with her children, or has known how to
do better, than Theodore's mother? She is the dearest old woman." Harry
had heard her called a very clever old woman by certain persons in
Stratton, and could not but think of her matrimonial successes as her
praises were thus sung by her daughter-in-law.

They went on talking, while Sophy sat in Harry's lap, till there was
heard the sound of a key in the latch of the front door, and the master