`` I think I 've let him off very easily . He is enough to try the patience of a saint , and I never was that , '' she added with entire truth . `` But he is n't bad , '' pleaded Salome . `` You know he never does anything the second time after he has been told it was wrong , never . '' `` What good does that do when he is certain to do something new and twice as bad ? I never saw anything like him for originating ideas of mischief . Just look at what he has done in the past fortnight -- in one fortnight , Salome . He brought in a live snake , and nearly frightened you into fits ; he drank up a bottle of liniment , and almost poisoned himself ; he took three toads to bed with him ; he climbed into the henhouse loft , and fell through on a hen and killed her ; he painted his face all over with your water-colours ; and now comes THIS exploit . And eggs at twenty-eight cents a dozen ! I tell you , Salome , Lionel Hezekiah is an expensive luxury . '' `` But we could n't do without him , '' protested Salome . '' I could . But as you ca n't , or think you ca n't , we 'll have to keep him , I suppose . But the only way to secure any peace of mind for ourselves , as far as I can see , is to tether him in the yard , and hire somebody to watch him . '' `` There must be some way of managing him , '' said Salome desperately . She thought Judith was in earnest about the tethering . Judith was generally so terribly in earnest in all she said . `` Perhaps it is because he has no other employment that he invents so many unheard-of things . If he had anything to occupy himself with -- perhaps if we sent him to school -- '' `` He 's too young to go to school . Father always said that no child should go to school until it was seven , and I do n't mean Lionel Hezekiah shall .
Well , I 'm going to take a pail of hot water and a brush , and see what I can do XXXXX that henhouse door .
If about after as at because in into of to