`` No , 'm ; I suppose not . But Jack did n't hit Frank , and feels real sorry , I know . '' `` He might have , and hurt him very much . Our actions are in our own hands , but the consequences of them are not . Remember that , my dear , and think twice before you do anything . '' `` Yes , 'm , I will ; '' and Jill composed herself to consider what missionaries usually did when the natives hurled tomahawks and boomerangs at one another , and defied the rulers of the land . Mrs. Minot wrote one page of a new letter , then stopped , pushed her papers about , thought a little , and finally got up , saying , as if she found it impossible to resist the yearning of her heart for the naughty boy , -- `` I am going to see if Jack is covered up , he is so helpless , and liable to take cold . Do n't stir till I come back . '' `` No , 'm , I wo n't . '' Away went the tender parent to find her son studying Caesar for dear life , and all the more amiable for the little gust which had blown away the temporary irritability . The brothers were often called `` Thunder and Lightning , '' because Frank lowered and growled and was a good while clearing up , while Jack 's temper came and went like a flash , and the air was all the clearer for the escape of dangerous electricity . Of course Mamma had to stop and deliver a little lecture , illustrated by sad tales of petulant boys , and punctuated with kisses which took off the edge of these afflicting narratives . Jill meantime meditated morally on the superiority of her own good temper over the hasty one of her dear playmate , and just when she was feeling unusually uplifted and secure , alas ! like so many of us , she fell , in the most deplorable manner . Glancing about the room for something to do , she saw a sheet of paper lying exactly out of reach , where it had fluttered from the table unperceived . At first her eye rested on it as carelessly as it did on the stray stamp Frank had dropped ; then , as if one thing suggested the other , she took it into her head that the paper was Frank 's composition , or , better still , a note to Annette , for the two corresponded when absence or weather prevented the daily meeting at school . `` Would n't it be fun to keep it till he gives back Jack 's stamps ? It would plague him so if it was a note , and I do believe it is , for compo 's do n't begin with two words on one side . I 'll get it , and Jack and I will plan some way to pay him off , cross thing ! '' Forgetting her promise not to stir , also how dishonorable it was to read other people 's letters , Jill caught up the long-handled hook , often in use now , and tried to pull the paper nearer .
It would not come at once , for a seam in the carpet held it , and XXXXX feared to tear or crumple it if she was not very careful .
Annette Caesar Frank Jack Jill Mamma compo daily escape first