Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/169

 wuz whippin' little Kate with a stick, her face all swelled up with what she called religious principle (I called it anger), but, howsumever, it hain't no matter what the name on't wuz, her face wuz all red and inflamed. And she, weighin' from two to three hundred pounds, wuz standin' over that little mite of humanity, that she herself brought into the world, for better or worse, stood over it, grippin' with one hard, red hand the little tender arm, leavin' great red marks with her voyalence, and layin' on the stick with the other, for she said she had lied.

"And lyin'," sez she, with her face redder than ever with what she called principle (and I called madness and revenge), "is sunthin' I won't have goin' on in this house!"

Sez I calmly, for I see it wuzn't my place to interfere, "What has she been lyin' about?" And she said she had told her to not stay but a hour to Miss Bobbettses playin' with her little girl, and she had stayed two, had lied about it. She had promised to come back in a hour and didn't. "She said she forgot all about the time, till the two hours wuz up, and I know she didn't forgit!"

Sez I, "How do you know she didn't forgit?"

"Why," sez she, "how could she forgit when there wuz a clock right in the room? She didn't come back because she wanted to stay, and she must own it up to me!"

"But," sez I calmly, "if the child did forgit you are whippin' her into lyin' instead of out of it." I didn't say no more, for I never interfere, and she took her out into the back room and finished up there, and I heard