That is,' added Frankie, correcting himself, 'if there ever was such a man at all.' 'But did Dad say that there never was such a man ?' 'No; he said HE didn't believe there ever was, but he told me to just listen to what the teacher said about such things, and then to think about it in my own mind, and wait till I'm grown up and then I can use my own judgement.' 'Well, now, that's what YOU were told, but all the other children's mothers and fathers tell them to believe, without thinking, whatever the teacher says.

So it will be no wonder if those children are not able to think for themselves when they're grown up, will it ?' 'Don't you think it will be any use, then, for me to tell them what to do to the Idlers ?' asked Frankie, dejectedly.
'Hark!' said his mother, holding up her finger.
'Dad!' cried Frankie, rushing to the door and flinging it open.

He ran along the passage and opened the staircase door before Owen reached the top of the last flight of stairs.
'Why ever do you come up at such a rate,' reproachfully exclaimed Owen's wife as he came into the room exhausted from the climb upstairs and sank panting into the nearest chair.
'I al-ways-for-get,' he replied, when he had in some degree recovered.
As he lay back in the chair, his face haggard and of a ghastly whiteness, and with the water dripping from his saturated clothing, Owen presented a terrible appearance.
Frankie noticed with childish terror the extreme alarm with which his mother looked at his father.
'You're always doing it,' he said with a whimper.

'How many more times will Mother have to tell you about it before you take nay notice ?' 'It's all right, old chap,' said Owen, drawing the child nearer to him and kissing the curly head.

'Listen, and see if you can guess what I've got for you under my coat.' In the silence the purring of the kitten was distinctly audible.
'A kitten!' cried the boy, taking it out of its hiding-place.