"
"I will tell you what we will do, Veronica," I said; "we will write a
book. You shall help me. And in it the children shall be the wise
and good people who never make mistakes, and they shall boss the
show--you know what I mean--look after the grown-up people and bring
them up properly. And everything the grown-up people do, or don't
do, will be wrong."
Veronica clapped her hands. "No, will you really?" she said. "Oh,
do."
"I will really," I answered. "We will call it a moral tale for
parents; and all the children will buy it and give it to their
fathers and mothers and such-like folk for their birthdays, with
writing on the title-page, 'From Johnny, or Jenny, to dear Papa, or
to dear Aunty, with every good wish for his or her improvement!'"
"Do you think they will read it?" doubted Veronica.
"We will put in it something shocking," I suggested, "and get some
paper to denounce it as a disgrace to English literature. And if
that won't do it we will say it is a translation from the Russian.
The children shall stop at home and arrange what to have for dinner,
and the grown-up people shall be sent to school. We will start them
off each morning with a little satchel. They shall be made to read
'Grimm's Fairy Tales' in the original German, with notes; and learn
'Old Mother Hubbard' by heart and explain the grammar."
"And go to bed early," suggested Veronica.
"We will have them all in bed by eight o'clock, Veronica, and they
will go cheerfully, as if they liked it, or we will know the reason
why.
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