her high chair at the
breakfast-table, she heard her aunt and me talking about the strike.
Though she could not understand it all, she knew there was trouble
between me and my employes. I was out of patience and used some sharp
words. She listened for a few minutes while busy with her bread and
milk, and then what do you think she said?"

"I am sure I have no idea," replied O'Hara, patting the head of the
laughing child, "but whatever it was, it was something nice."

"She says, 'Brother Harvey, when I do anything wrong, you take me on
your knee and talk to me and that makes me feel so bad that I never do
that kind of wrong again. Why don't you take those bad men on your
knee and talk to them, so they won't do so again?' I showed her that
such an arrangement was hardly practicable, and then she fired her
solid shot that pierced my ship between wind and water: 'Brother
Harvey, maybe it's _you_ that has done wrong; why don't you sit down on
their knees _and let them give you a talking to_? Then you won't be
bad any more."

Hugh and Harvey broke into laughter, during which Dollie, who had
become tired of sitting still full two minutes, slid off O'Hara's knee
and ran out of the room.

"We smile at the odd conceits of the little ones," continued Harvey,
"but you know that the truest wisdom has come from the mouths of babes.
I hushed her, but what she said set me thinking--'_Why don't you let
them give you a good talking to_?' _That_ was the very thing you had
asked and I had refused. I set out to take a long walk, and was absent
most of the day. Her question kept coming up to me, and I tried to
drive it away. The effort made me angry and ended in a decision to be
sterner than ever. I would not yield a point; I would import a body of
men at large expense and keep them at work, just because I was too
proud to undo what I knew was wrong.

"Still my conscience troubled me, but for all that I don't think I
would have yielded. Pride, the greatest of all stumbling-blocks, was
in my way. Reaching home, I learned that Dollie was lost; then, of
course, every other thought went from my head. Nothing else could be
done until she was found."

Harvey was about to tell his guest his suspicion that he had had a hand
in the abduction of the child, but he was ashamed, and really there was
no call for such a confession.

"Well, it was you who found her. I repeat that my debt to you can
never be paid. And yet I do not bel