"An' musn't I grab holt of the calf's tail when he shoves it through the fence?" "No." "Why?" "Oh, because it will hurt him. Let mamma go to sleep now, but don't you go out." "Nome." The woman sank to sleep. The boy got off the bed and went to the window. He looked up at a fly that was buzzing at the top, went back to the bed, gently kissed his mother, and stole out into the hall. Exuberant with freedom, he began to gallop in imitation of a horse. "Sh-sh!" He was confronted by the proprietor's wife. "What are you racing around here like a mule for--say? Don't you know you are wearing out the carpet? Why don't you go somewhere and sit down and behave like a human being? Think I bought this carpet to have it scuffed out this way? Stop raking your foot on the floor that way." He held up his hands as if, in begging for forgiveness, he would kiss her. "Don't put your greasy hands on me. Go on, now, and don't rake your feet on this carpet. I don't know what mothers these days can be thinking about." "Tommie," his mother called. "Yessum." "Come here." "Oh, I don't know what to do with you," she said, when she had drawn him into the room. "What makes you so bad?" "I dunno; but it must be the bad man." "Yes, and he'll get you, too, if you don't behave yourself." "And will he hurt me?" "Yes; he will." "How?" "Burn you." "Ho! I'd shoot him." "You couldn't." "Why couldn't I?" "Oh, I don't know." "Then how do you know he would burn me?" "Oh, I don't know that he would." "Then what made you say that he would?" "For gracious sake, give me a little peace." "A little piece of bread?" he asked, while his eyes twinkled with mischief. "Hush, sir; hush. Not another word out of you. Take your dirty hands away from my face." "I want to hug you." "Well, hug me, then, and sit down." "You love me, don't you?" "Yes, little angel," she said, pressing him to her bosom. "More than all the houses an' railroads an' steamboats put together?" "Yes." To the mother the days were dragged over the field of time like the dead body of an animal. In misery lest her son should cause offense, she watched him, and, at table, hushed him. The proprietor's wife scolded him, and at last the little fellow's spirit was cowed. He crept through the hall, and, on tiptoe, to keep from wearing out the carpets, he moved through the house. He would shrink when he saw the proprietor's wife, and in his sleep he muttered apologies and declared that he would be good. One morning he awoke with a burning fever. "I wish you would come in and see my little boy," said the mother, addressing the proprietor's wife. She went in. The little fellow looked at her, and, as a deeply-troubled expression crossed his face, said: "I won't wear out the carpet." "Why, no, you won't hurt the carpet. Get up and run on it all you want to." "I can't, now." "But you can after awhile."