Paste Jewels; Being Seven Tales of Domestic Woe

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... to boss him, but to keep an eye on him--to advise him, and, in case he declines to accept the advice, to communicate with us at once? All he needs is directed occupation. As he is at present, he directs his own occupation, with the result that the things he does are of an impossible sort. That means another servant for me to manage, sighed Mrs. Perkins. True; but a servant is easier to manage than Teddy. You can discharge a servant if she becomes impossible. We've got Teddy for keeps, said Thaddeus. Very well--so be it, said Mrs. Perkins. You are right, I guess, about school. He ought not to be forced, and I'd be worried about him all the time he was away, anyhow. So it was decided that Teddy should have a nurse, and for a day or two the subject was dropped. Later on Mrs. Perkins reopened it. I've been thinking all day about Teddy's nurse, Thaddeus, she said, one evening after dinner. I think it would be nice if we got him a French nurse. Then he could learn French without any foreing. Good scheme, said Thaddeus. I approve of that. We might learn a little French from her ourselves, too. That's what I thought, said Bessie; and that point was decided. The new nurse was to be French, and the happy parents drew beatific visions of the ease with which they should some day cope with Parisian hotel-keepers and others in that longed-for period when they should find themselves able, financially, to visit the French capital. ButAh! Those buts that come into onr lives! Conjunctions they are called! Are they not rather terminals? Are they not the forerunners of chaos in the best-laid plans of mankind? If for every but that destroys our plan of action there were ready always some better-succeeding plan, then might their conjunctive force...