CARROTS IN TROUBLE. is

hasty. And I do not think, on the whole, that
they understand much about children, though
they are often very fond of them and very
kind. All this was the case with Carrots’s
father. He had been so much away from his
children while they were little that he really
hardly knew how they had been brought up or
trained, or anything about their childish ways ;
he had left them entirely to his wife, and
scarcely considered them as in any way “ “zs

”

business,” till they were quite big boys and
girls.

But once he did begin to notice them, though
very kind, he was very strict. He had most
decided opinions about the only way of check-
ing their faults whenever these were serious
enough to attract his attention; and he could
not and would not be troubled with arguing,
or what he called “ splitting hairs,” about such
matters. A fault was a fault; telling a false-
hood was telling a falsehood; and he made no
allowance for the excuses or “palliating cir-
cumstances” there might be to consider. One