"Tom," said Miss Patricia, "what do you suppose made that child do
such a reckless thing? Sometimes I think that boys are like monkeys,
and are possessed by the same spirit of mischief. Neither seem
satisfied unless they are playing tricks or making some kind of a
disturbance. They are always getting into trouble."

"Yes, it does seem so," answered the doctor, "but if we could look
down to the bottom of a boy's heart, we would find that very little of
the mischief that he gets into is planned for the purpose of making
trouble. He does things from a pure love of fun, or from some sudden
impulse, and because he never stops to think of what it may lead to.
Phil never stopped to think any more than Dago would have done, what
would be the result of setting fire to the powder. You must remember
that he is a very little fellow, Aunt Patricia. He is only eight. We
shouldn't expect him to have the reasoning powers of a man, and the
caution and judgment that come with age."

Now I thought that that was a very sensible speech. It seemed to
excuse some of my own past mistakes. But Miss Patricia put on her old
war-eagle look.

"Really, Tom," she said, "that sounds very well, but it is not what
was taught in my day. A wholesome use of the rod after the first act
of disobedience helps boys to stop and think before committing the
second. It is a great developer of judgment, in my opinion. If you had
punished Phil the first time he took down his grandfather's
powder-horn after you had forbidden him to touch it, he would never
have taken it down the second time, and so would have been spared all
this suffering to-day."