her complaints. Rose was very forbearing, and but for this there
would have been little peace in the house.

Walter was thirteen, an age when it is not easy to keep boys in
order, unless they will do so for themselves. Though a brave
generous boy, he was often unruly and inconsiderate, apt not to obey,
and to do what he knew to be unkind or wrong, just for the sake of
present amusement. He was thus his mother's great anxiety, for she
knew that she was not fit either to teach or to restrain him, and she
feared that his present wild disobedient ways might hurt his
character for ever, and lead to dispositions which would in time
swallow up all the good about him, and make him what he would now
tremble to think of.

She used to talk of her anxieties to Doctor Bathurst, the good old
clergyman who had been driven away from his parish, but used to come
in secret to help, teach, and use his ministry for the faithful ones
of his flock. He would tell her that while she did her best for her
son, she must trust the rest to his FATHER above, and she might do so
hopefully, since it had been in His own cause that the boy had been
made fatherless. Then he would speak to Walter, showing him how
wrong and how cruel were his overbearing, disobedient ways. Walter
was grieved, and resolved to improve and become steadier, that he
might be a comfort and blessing to his mother; but in his love of fun
and mischief he was apt to forget himself, and then drove away what
might have been in time repentance and improvement, by fancying he
did no harm. Teasing Deborah served her right, he would tell
himself, she was so ill-tempered and foolish; Diggory was a clod, and
would do nothing without scolding; it was a good joke to tease
Charlie; Eleanor was a vexatious little thing, and he would not be