Page:Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).djvu/148

130 may be well advanced in years, you may be gifted in rhetoric, ingenious in argument; but even you might quail at the thought of explaining the tortuous mental processes that led you into throwing your beloved pink parasol into Miranda Sawyer's well. Perhaps you feel equal to discussing the efficacy of spiritual self-chastisement with a person who closes her lips into a thin line and looks at you out of blank, uncomprehending eyes! Common sense, right, and logic were all arrayed on Miranda's side. When poor Rebecca, driven to the wall, had to avow the reasons lying behind the sacrifice of the sunshade, her aunt said, "Now see here, Rebecca, you 're too big to be whipped, and I shall never whip you; but when you think you ain't punished enough, just tell me, and I 'll make out to invent a little something more. I ain't so smart as some folks, but I can do that much; and whatever it is, it 'll be something that won't punish the whole family, and make 'em drink ivory dust, wood chips, and pink silk rags with their water."