Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag Vol. 1

'A very bad habit--can't allow it. Throw that dirty thing away, and go
and get your Latin lesson for to-morrow. The study is quiet, and we want
this room.'

'But I am tired. I can't study at night. Let me off till to-morrow,
please, sir!' begged papa, who had not looked at Latin since he left
school.

'Not a word, sir! I shall listen to no excuses, and shall not let you
neglect your education on any account,' and Harry slapped the table à
la papa in the most impressive manner.

Mr. Fairbairn went away into the dull study and made believe do his
lesson, but he really smoked and meditated.

The young folks had a grand revel, and kept it up till ten o'clock,
while mamma lay awake, longing to go down and see what they were about,
and papa shortly fell asleep, quite exhausted by the society of a Latin
Grammar.

'Idle boy, is this the way you study?' said Harry, audaciously tweaking
him by the ear.

'No, it's the way you do;' and feeling that his day of bondage was over,
papa cast off his allegiance, tucked a child under each arm, and marched
upstairs with them, kicking and screaming. Setting them down at the
nursery door, he said, shaking his finger at them in an awful manner,--