The Prussians wear helmets,but they have spikes like the old Roman fellows.I like Prussians ever so much;they fight splendidly,and always beat.Austrians have a handsome uniform,though.""Talking of Romans reminds me that I have not heard your Latin for two days.Come,lazybones,brace up,and let us have it now.
I've done my compo,and shall have just time before I go out for a tramp with Gus,"said Frank,putting by a neat page to dry,for he studied every day like a conscientious lad as he was.
"Don't know it.Not going to try till next week.Grind away over your old Greek as much as you like,but don't bother me,"answered Jack,frowning at the mere thought of the detested lesson.
But Frank adored his Xenophon,and would not see his old friend,Caesar,neglected without an effort to defend him;so he confiscated the gum-pot,and effectually stopped the stamp business by whisking away at one fell swoop all that lay on Jill's table.
"Now then,young man,you will quit this sort of nonsense and do your lesson,or you won't see these fellows again in a hurry.You asked me to hear you,and I'm going to do it;here's the book."Frank's tone was the dictatorial one,which Jack hated and always found hard to obey,especially when he knew he ought to do it.
Usually,when his patience was tried,he strode about the room,or ran off for a race round the garden,coming back breathless,but good-tempered.Now both these vents for irritation were denied him,and he had fallen into the way of throwing things about in a pet.He longed to send Caesar to perpetual banishment in the fire blazing close by,but resisted the temptation,and answered honestly,though gruffly:"I know I'd id,but I don't see any use in pouncing on a fellow when he isn't ready.I haven't got my lesson,and don't mean to worry about it;so you may just give me back my things and go about your business.""I'll give you back a stamp for every perfect lesson you get,and you won't see them on any other terms";and,thrusting the treasures into his pocket,Frank caught up his rubber boots,and went off swinging them like a pair of clubs,feeling that he would give a trifle to be able to use them on his lazy brother.
At this high-handed proceeding,and the threat which accompanied it,Jack's patience gave out,and catching up Caesar,as he thought,sent him flying after the retreating tyrant with the defiant declaration,"Keep them,then,and your old book,too!I won't look at it till you give all my stamps back and say you are sorry.So now!"It was all over before Mamma could interfere,or Jill do more than clutch and cling to the gum-brush.Frank vanished unharmed,but the poor book dashed against the wall to fall half open on the floor,its gay cover loosened,and its smooth leaves crushed by the blow.
"It's the album!O Jack,how could you?"cried Jill,dismayed at sight of the precious book so maltreated by the owner.
"Thought it was the other.Guess it isn't hurt much.Didn't mean to hit him,anyway.He does provoke me so,"muttered Jack,very red and shamefaced as his mother picked up the book and laid it silently on the table before him.He did not know what to do with himself,and was thankful for the stamps still left him,finding great relief in making faces as he plucked them one by one from his mortified countenance.Jill looked on,half glad,half sorry that her savage showed such signs of unconverted ferocity,and Mrs.
Minot went on writing letters,wearing the grave look her sons found harder to bear than another person's scolding.No one spoke for a moment,and the silence was becoming awkward when Gus appeared in a rubber suit,bringing a book to Jack from Laura and a note to Jill from Lotty.
"Look here,you just trundle me into my den,please,I'm going to have a nap,it's so dull to-day I don't feel like doing much,"said Jack,when Gus had done his errands,trying to look as if he knew nothing about the fracas.
Jack folded his arms and departed like a warrior borne from the battle-field,to be chaffed unmercifully for a "pepper-pot,"while Gus made him comfortable in his own room.
"I heard once of a boy who threw a fork at his brother and put his eye out.But he didn't mean to,and the brother forgave him,and he never did so any more,"observed Jill,in a pensive tone,wishing to show that she felt all the dangers of impatience,but was sorry for the culprit.
"Did the boy ever forgive himself?"asked Mrs.Minot.
"No,'m;I suppose not.But Jack didn't hit Frank,and feels real sorry,I know.""He might have,and hurt him very much.Our actions are in our own hands,but the consequences of them are not.Remember that,my dear,and think twice before you do anything.""Yes,'m,I will";and Jill composed herself to consider what missionaries usually did when the natives hurled tomahawks and boomerangs at one another,and defied the rulers of the land.
Mrs.Minot wrote one page of a new letter,then stopped,pushed her papers about,thought a little,and finally got up,saying,as if she found it impossible to resist the yearning of her heart for the naughty boy,"I am going to see if Jack is covered up,he is so helpless,and liable to take cold.Don't stir till I come back.""No,'m,I won't."
Away went the tender parent to find her son studying Caesar for dear life,and all the more amiable for the little gust which had blown away the temporary irritability.The brothers were often called "Thunder and Lightning,"because Frank lowered and growled and was a good while clearing up,while Jack's temper came and went like a flash,and the air was all the clearer for the escape of dangerous electricity.Of course Mamma had to stop and deliver a little lecture,illustrated by sad tales of petulant boys,and punctuated with kisses which took off the edge of these afflicting narratives.
Jill meantime meditated morally on the superiority of her own good temper over the hasty one of her dear playmate,and just when she was feeling unusually uplifted and secure,alas!like so many of us,she fell,in the most deplorable manner.
