Jerry and Carl had given up banister sliding and were sitting on the edge of the veranda with Faith . Unfortunately , all three were singing at the tops of their healthy young voices `` There 'll be a hot time in the old town to-night . '' Mrs. Davis believed the song was meant for her and her only . She stopped and shook her parasol at them . `` Your father is a fool , '' she said , `` and you are three young varmints that ought to be whipped within an inch of your lives . '' `` He is n't , '' cried Faith . `` We 're not , '' cried the boys . But Mrs. Davis was gone . `` Goodness , is n't she mad ! '' said Jerry . `` And what is a ` varmint ' anyhow ? '' John Meredith paced up and down the parlour for a few minutes ; then he went back to his study and sat down . But he did not return to his German theology . He was too grievously disturbed for that . Mrs. Davis had wakened him up with a vengeance . WAS he such a remiss , careless father as she had accused him of being ? HAD he so scandalously neglected the bodily and spiritual welfare of the four little motherless creatures dependent on him ? WERE his people talking of it as harshly as Mrs. Davis had declared ? It must be so , since Mrs. Davis had come to ask for Una in the full and confident belief that he would hand the child over to her as unconcernedly and gladly as one might hand over a strayed , unwelcome kitten . And , if so , what then ?
John XXXXX groaned and resumed his pacing up and down the dusty , disordered room .
Carl Davis German Jerry Meredith Una minutes remiss to-night varmints