"Rosalie, I've never whipped those boys of mine. Some way I couldn't
with Hattie gone and them having no one but me. But maybe it was a
mistake."
"No, it wasn't, Joe. The Greatest Teacher that ever lived used only
truth and gentleness and look at the size of His school now. No--this
trouble isn't in the children exactly. It must be in us. We're stupid
and don't know how to do for the children. People say that young folks
must be young folks. And we let our boys and even our girls flounder
through a lot of cheap foolishness before we expect them to settle down.
"But it's my opinion, Joe, that letting them flounder all alone through
these raw years of their life is plain wickedness. Peter has a good
home and he's loved and he knows it. Yet he's got to the place now
where he wants something that I and the home can't seem to give him. I
don't know just what it is. But this place, Joe, bad as it is, must
have the thing that our half-grown children want and that's what brings
them here even against our will. And I'm going to-night to find out
what it is."
"It can't be good for them, Rosalie, when it drives them into lying and
stealing. Why only to-day Josie Landis sent Eddie to me with fifty
cents for the shoes I mended for her.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228