It is that I think it will be the best plan for all of us--for our comfort and happiness, and your future good.

I can't have you all growing up like savages, untrained, uneducated, uncared for.

What would you all say to me when you grew up ?" looking round at them with a smile.
"I would say, 'Thank you,'" said Betty gravely.
"I'd rather be a savage than anything," said Tony eagerly.
Kitty and Dan were silent.

Dan was old enough to realize something of what his father meant; Kitty was altogether too upset to answer.
She was thinking that it was she who had brought all this on them; that she might have saved them from it.

The others blamed Jabez and his tale-bearing; but Kitty in her heart of hearts felt that Jabez with his cut forehead and his tale of woe was but a last link in the long chain which she had forged--a chain which was to grapple to them Aunt Pike and the unwelcome Anna.