“Mrs. Lennox has the best-trained children I ever knew. They are full of fun and frolic, yet cheerfully obedient to her, and as the subject is likely to interest me, I have observed them very closely, and asked her whether they were unusually amiable or whether it was due to training. She told me she did not do much training, nor were the children specially amiable; and it is true there seems less _small_ restriction in her family than in most others where the children are ‘regular pickles.’” “How does she manage them?” “I hardly think she knows herself. She says she makes few rules, and those the children hardly know of; they only know there are a few things they dare not do; but I notice they never ask her for a thing twice, and that is because she says she never denied anything she knew she might be induced to grant; so they know pleading or worrying is thrown away, and four happier children you never saw. I asked her once if her babies were as good as they are when older. She said two were no trouble; her first was a restless one for the first three months and the last was sick; but she will not believe that well babies would be cross or restless if properly managed, and she gave me her experience with the first one. Of course I know nothing from experience; I can only observe and read and think, and I, too, hope to have a good baby if it is a well one.” “Dear me! I should not have thought Mrs. Lennox was a woman to have strongly-formed ideas on the subject.” “No, I don’t believe she thinks so herself. I don’t even know that she has formulated her ideas. She may have acted only on instinct, but the result is charming; if you were to see her children you would say so.” CHAPTER XL. ENGLISH MUFFINS AND CRUMPETS—PICKLING AND CURING—ROAST BEEF-HEART—SOUSED MACKEREL. MRS. WELLES’S visit was to have been a week only; but at the end of it it seemed as if they had but just got to the point of enjoying each other, and Mr. Welles was induced to spare her for a few days longer. “I declare, Molly, when I came here I expected to do so much, both for you and myself, and I’ve done nothing.” “Oh, yes; just consider my entertainment, what you did to help me in that; but there’s one thing I want this very day, that is, English muffins and crumpets. I have tried once or twice from recipes in my English cook-books, but they always give the quantities for a bakery,—a peck of flour, sometimes a bushel,—and it is difficult to reduce to my small needs; besides, I know success depends on consistency, and there is very little guidance given. ‘Water to make a soft dough’ is only stated; _how_ soft is not hinted, and the so-called English muffins in our books are very good as muffins, only they don’t happen to be the thing at all.” “I know it is really only a question of consistency. I will make some this very day, if you have yeast in the house.”