I'm going to turn out the lights." "And have him bump right into the house?
A person would think you wanted Johnny to smash himself all to pieces again! And it isn't going to cost anything so terrible to leave the lights on for another little minute, mom! A few cents' worth of gas will run the dynamo--" "For land's sake, Mary V, don't go into a tantrum just at bedtime.
Who's talking about cost?
Your father can't sleep with all the lights turned on in the house, and neither can I.

And it ain't a particle of use for you to sit up and wait for Johnny; he won't come to-night, and you needn't look for him." Mary V did not want to hear a statement of that kind, even if it were a mere argumentative flourish on the part of a selfish, unsympathetic parent who would jeopardize a person's life rather than annoy herself with a light or two burning.

Mary V immediately had what her mother called a tantrum.

That is, she began to cry and to declaim unreasonably that no one cared whether Johnny smashed himself all to pieces in the dark--that perhaps certain persons wished that Johnny would fall and be killed, just so they could sleep! Her mother may have been weak in discipline, but now that Mary V was spoiled to the extent of having tantrums, she proved herself a sensible, level-headed sort of woman.

She went away to her bed quite unmoved by the tears and self-pity, and left Mary V alone.
"You turn out all the lights except the porch light, Mary V," Old Sudden himself commanded from his bedroom door.