By that which fools call an accident, but which is really a divine miracle, if miracles there be, I overhear this instruction. Then I stand at my window and see him cross the street in his slow way and with bent¹ head; only, he goes slower than usual and with his head bent more deeply between his small shoulders.

 

He stands long outside the baker's window, where there is a confused heap of lollipops² and chocolates and sugar-sticks and other things created for a small boy's delight. Then he lifts his young hand, opens the door, disappears and presently returns with a great paper bag, eating with all his might.

 

And I, who, Heaven be praised, have myself been a thief in my time, run all over the house and give my orders.

 

My little boy enters the kitchen.

 

"Put the biscuits on the table," says Petrine.

 

He stands still for a moment and looks at her and at the table and at the floor. Then he goes silently to his mother.

 

"You're quite a big boy now, that you can buy biscuits for Petrine," says she, without looking up from her work.

 

His face is very long, but he says nothing. He comes quietly in to me and sits down on the edge of a chair.

 

"You have been over the way, at the baker's."

 

He comes up to me, where I am sitting and reading, and presses himself against me. I do not look at him, but I can perceive what is going on inside him.

 

"What did you buy at the baker's?"

 

"Lollipops."

 

"Well, I never! What fun! Why, you had some lollipops this morning. Who gave you the money this time?"

 

"Petrine."

 

"Really! Well, Petrine is certainly very fond of you. Do you remember the lovely ball she gave you on your birthday?"

 

"Father, Petrine told me to buy a cent's worth of biscuits."

 

"Oh, dear!"

 

It is very quiet in the room. My little boy cries bitterly and I look anxiously before me, stroking his hair the while.

 

"Now you have fooled Petrine badly. She wants those biscuits, of course, for her cooking. She thinks they're on the kitchen-table and, when she goes to look, she won't find any. Mother gave her a cent for biscuits. Petrine gave you a cent for biscuits and you go and spend it on lollipops. What are we to do?"

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