Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/353

Rh "I never heard," said a gay voice from a corner, "that Adam was much troubled by his wife's dress accounts. It's the present-day husbands that complain of that grievance."

"The present-day husbands complain of a good many grievances," a careworn woman sighed bitterly.

"And why?" said a stern-looking member in glasses. "Because their mothers spoil them first and their wives afterwards. Most of their faults are to be traced to their great selfishness—the selfishness which is natural to their sex and carefully cultivated by mothers and wives. It should be smacked out of them when babies, worked out of them when boys, and—and later, nagged out of them by wives. Mothers, in particular, should not spare the rod. However, this is not what is before the meeting. Mrs. Dickson will you read the reports."

Mrs. Dickson opened the book before her.

"You couldn't do it," she said softly; "it's quite impossible to refuse baby anything if he cries for it. It's awful to hear a child crying when it's just at the beginning of its life's journey. It's such a little thing it wants, after all, to please it."