y bits."

Mac chuckled.

"To begin with," I said pompously, "you are an awful example of a bad
education."

She bowed mockingly and Mac guffawed. He is a wee bit afraid of his
wife and he marvels at my courage in ragging her.

"You," I continued, "were made to obey as a child, and as a result you
became dependent on your mother. In short you are your own mother."

"Don't be silly," she said with a frown; "I want your serious opinion."

"And you are getting it," I replied. "Because you had to obey you
never lived your own life, and naturally you never had a mind of your
own. To this day you act as your mother acted. She made her daughter
obey; you follow her example; she made scones in such and such a way;
you make scones in exactly the same way."

"That's right!" laughed Mac.

Mrs. Mac looked thoughtful.

"Anyway," she said quickly, "they are excellent scones."

"Most excellent scones," I hastened to add, "but my point is that if we
all follow our parents there will be no progress."

"Progress will never bring better scones," said Mac and he patted his
wife's cheek.

"Mac," I said gallantly, "your wife has brought scones to their perfect
and utmost evolution. She has made the super-scone. Only, Helen isn't
a scone you know."

At this point Helen was found trying to pull the marble clock down from
the mantlepiece. Her mother rescued the clock as it was falling, and
she scolded the fair Helen.

"You are all theory," she cried to me. "What would you do in a case
like this?"

"Same as you did," I answered hastily, and then added: "Only I would
try to give her so many interesting things to play with that she'd
forget to want the clock."

Then Mrs. Mac indignantly dragged out Helen's toys from a cupboard.

"Dozens of them!" she cried, "and she is tired of every one."

Then I discoursed on toys. The toys of the world are nearly all bad.
Helen has a beautiful sleeping doll that cost five pounds; rather I
should say that Helen _had_ a beautiful sleeping doll that cost five
pounds. On the one occasion that Helen was allowed to play with it she
made a careful attempt to open the head with a pair of scissors to see
what made the eyes close and open. Then her mother put the doll in a
box, packed the box in a trunk, and explained to Helen that the doll
was to lie in that trunk until Helen had a little baby girl of her own.

I explained to Mrs. Mac that the toy a child needs is one that will
take t