Her husband's eyes lighted with a reminiscent smile. "Little monkey!" he exclaimed. "She slid down the banisters like a streak of lightning and flew into my arms before I had time to take off my overcoat. She said she was sitting on the stairs, waiting for me to come. Not many children think enough about seeing their old daddy to sit on the stairs in the dark!" "I'm really sorry to undeceive you, Sam; but I had sent that child up to her room, and told her to stay there till I called her!" Elizabeth informed him crisply. "Wherefore the incarceration, O lady mother?" "She was very naughty, Sam; she pinched Carroll, and when I reproved her for doing it, she said she felt like biting him. Think of that! Of course I had to do something." "What had Carroll done to provoke the cannibalistic desire on the part of the young woman?" he wanted to know, with judicial calm. "Nothing at all, except to remind Doris to hang up her coat and put her overshoes away, as I've told them both to do repeatedly." His mouth twitched with an amused smile. "And Dorry punished him promptly for his display of superior virtue--eh? Well, it may be very much out of order for a mere father to say so, but I'll venture to express the opinion that it won't hurt Master Carroll to get an occasional snubbing from somebody. He's a good deal of a prig, Betty, and it's got to come out of him some way or other between now and his Sophomore year in college. Better not interfere too often, my dear. Let 'em work it out; it won't hurt either of 'em." His wife surveyed him with wide, sad eyes. "Oh, Sam!" she murmured, "how can you talk like that? Carroll tries to be a good boy and help me all he can. But Doris----" "Don't you worry about the little girl," advised her husband, laying a soothing hand on hers. "She's all right." "She ought not to quarrel with the other children; or disobey me. You know that, Sam." "Of course not. You'll have to make her toe the mark, Betty." "But how, Sam? I've tried. I'm positively worn out trying." The man pursed up his lips in an inaudible whistle. "Upon my word, Betty," he broke out at length, "I don't know as I can tell you. We don't stand for whipping, you know. Beating small children always struck me as being a relic of the dark ages; and I know I could never stand it to see a child of mine cower before me out of physical fear. But we mustn't spoil 'em!" "Marian Stanford whips Robbie every time he disobeys," Elizabeth said after a lengthening pause. "She uses a butter-paddle--the kind I make those little round balls with; you know it has a corrugated surface. She says it is just the thing; it hurts so nicely. But I'm sure Robbie Stanford is far naughtier than Carroll ever thinks of being." Her husband broke into a helpless laugh which he promptly repressed at sight of her indignant face.