these strange things; but he had not;
far from it; he thought about them more and more, and most of all about
the Chinaman's head and the magic tobacco. He really could not get that
Chinaman's head out of his mind. Here was magic just within reach of
your hand, and you were told that you mustn't touch it. You might as
well have Aladdin's lamp in your bureau drawer, and be told to keep away
from the bureau; even parents ought to know better than to expect such a
thing. Anyway, what harm could just one or two little whiffs do? You
needn't smoke a whole pipeful, if you didn't want to. However, Mr. Toby
would not be pleased, and Freddie did not intend to do anything to
displease Mr. Toby. Still, it did seem a pity, with such a chance right
over your head--Oh, well, he would think no more about it; he fixed his
mind on other things; he thought especially about a hymn they sang
nearly every Sunday in Sunday-school; it was a great help; he knew it by
heart, and it went like this:

"Yield not to temptation,
For yielding is sin,
Each vict'ry will help you
Some other to win."

He resolved he would never think about the magic tobacco again; he went
to sleep saying over to himself, "Yield not to temptation," and dreamed
all night about the Chinaman's head, and thought about it all the next
day.

In order to get it out of his mind, he called on Aunt Amanda. It was
late in the afternoon; he sat on his hassock and watched Aunt Amanda
sewing. Mr. Toby was in the shop, waiting on customers. Freddie watched
for a long time, and then said:

"What are you doing?"

"Basting," said Aunt Amanda.

"I thought that was what you did to a turkey," said Freddie.

"So it is," said Aunt Amanda.

"That isn't a turkey," said Freddie.

"No," said Aunt Amanda, "you baste a turkey with gravy."

"That isn't gravy," said Freddie.

"It's different," said Aunt Amanda. "You see, I have to sew this up with
needle and thread, and----"

"You sew up a turkey with needle and thread, too," said Freddie.

"But that's different," said Aunt Amanda. "You couldn't baste a turkey
with needle and thread, and you couldn't baste dress-goods with
gravy----"

"Why not?" said Freddie.

"Well," said Aunt Amanda, "well, you see, they don't do it that way;
it's _different_; it ain't the same thing at all; it's like this; when
you baste a turkey----"

"Have you ever had any children?" said Freddie.

Aunt Amanda put her hand to her heart