"But what is it all about?
Did you quarrel about calling him that?
I hate to see you both going about, and not speaking to each other." I had no reason to conceal anything, and so I told her the whole affair, from the very beginning to the end.
"I don't wonder he's mad," said she, "if you thrashed him." "Well, and oughtn't I to be mad after the way he treated me ?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.

"It makes me sick just to think of being tied up in that way,--and the black paint, too! But then you are so much bigger than he is, that it don't seem right for you to thrash him." "That's one reason I did it," said I."I didn't want to fight him as I should have fought a fellow of my own size.

I wanted to punish him.

Do you think that when a father wants to whip his son he ought to wait until he grows up as big as he is ?" "No," said Corny, very gravely.

"Of course not.