Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/151

Rh she was discharging her full and Christian duty to the child.

To be sure, they laid down certain rules of conduct for Rebecca which they endeavored to enforce. She must come to meals on time; she must wear a sunbonnet; she must learn the catechism; she must say "Yes, ma'm," and "No, ma'm," "Yes, sir" and "No, sir," when older persons questioned her; she must never loll in her chair, but sit bolt upright as became one who aspired to become a gentlewoman; she must master the difference in pronunciation between to and too if she wished to be considered a Virginian or even the descendant of one. Every Virginian worthy of consideration must know that t-o-o was pronounced two, and t-o was pronounced tow.

There were many other petty rules, and Rebecca found them all difficult to keep. To be on time at meals was the most difficult of all and the one rule about which the aunts were the most particular. Meals had always been uncertain affairs in the studio on West Tenth Street. There they ate when they were hungry. This thing of three meals, sitting down solemnly to a table; making a rite of breakfast, dinner and supper, was irksome as well as amusing to the little creature, strayed from Bohemia.