more perfectly perform the task THat had been assigned him, their hearts
were filled with indignation and pity.

"I don't see how it is," said Mrs. Hahn one day to her husband at the close
of the midday meal.

"Now, that Mrs. Fischer seems in some ways to be a pretty good sort of
woman, but when she speaks to her son, she acts like Satan himself. Only
yesterday I saw her out cleaning up the yard, and she seemed quite
good-natured until she discovered Ed coming out to help her. Then, without
telling him where to get it, she told him to hustle around and find her a
picket, for she wanted to fix the fence. I saw right away that he didn't
know what a picket was, but I wanted to see what he would do. He didn't
ask. Instead he ran around the house looking in every direction and came
back to tell her that he couldn't find any. Then, in a tone that she would
not have used for the dog she yelled at him that it was of no use to expect
an idiot like him to find anything. Next she went to a pile of pickets that
was near the barn and easily got herself what she was wanting. Still she
didn't explain anything to Edwin, but I could see that the boy knew then
what a 'picket' looked like.

"Now, Pa, I'll tell you what I'd like to do. Since his mother acts toward
him as she does, I'd like to ask him over here whenever he can come, just
as though he were coming to help us, you know, and then we could tell him
about many of these things that he doesn't know. Perhaps if he knew better
what they meant, it would not be so hard for him, and he would escape some
of the abuse."

"That's a bright idea, my good little wife," said Mr. Hahn smiling his
approval. "I believe that we ought to help the boy all that we can, for