Mrs. Love, Mr. Pain,and Miss Joy

But it was only a few days after this that she [Little Lucy] went to the fireplace and filled her clean white apron with coals and ashes. Her mamma took them away from her, and shook her head, and said: "No, no!" again and again. But as soon as Susy had another clean apron put on, she ran again to the fire and began to fill it with coals, and no matter how often her mamma said No, no! she would keep doing it over and over. Then Mrs. Love said to her mamma: "If we let Susy do so, some day she will get burned. We ought to punish her, so that she will mind when she is spoken to."

"Yes, I think so, too," said her mamma.

So Mrs. Love called Mr. Pain and told him to slap Susy's little arm if she disobeyed again. It was not long before he had to come; and as soon as she saw him, Miss Joy, who had been frolicking with Susy a whole year, and never before had been absent from her--poor Miss Joy ran away and hid. As soon as Susy felt the slaps on her arm she let the coals drop and began to cry. She looked at her arm, which bore the red marks of Mr. Pain's hand, and pitied it very much. But the slap did her good. It taught her to obey her mamma about the fire, and saved her from being burned up, as she certainly would have been if she had kept on playing with the coals.

Mr Pain soon went away, and he had hardly turned his back when Miss Joy peeped out of the closet where she had been hiding, and made such a funny Face that Susy could not help laughing, and her face was both wet with tears and shining with smiles. She kissed her mamma and put her arms around her neck, and her mamma kissed her and said: "Susy won't be naughty any more." And Susy smiled and said: "No, No.!"~ From Little Susy's Six Teachers, 1856

[A lesson for the modern day philosophies on child rearing. ~ mr]