Quick was he to make the encounter accord with the child's happy view, even picking him up and forcing from himself the gaiety to rally him upon his babyish tenderness to rough play.

Not less did he hold it true that "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame--" and with the older boy he was not unconscientious in this matter.

For Allan took punishment as any boy would, and, indeed, was so careful that he seldom deserved it.

But the old man never ceased to be grateful that the littler boy had laughed under that one blow, unable to suspect that it could have been meant in earnest.
From the first day that the little boy felt the tender cool grass under his bare toes that summer, life became like perfectly played music.

This was after the long vacation began, when there was no longer any need to remember to let his voice fall after a period, or to dread his lessons so that he must learn them more quickly than any other pupil in school.