Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

OUR SPRINGTIME loi
sister in the direction of the ash-barrel, where I was secreted,
and, as she told me but yesterday, was "cuddled and comforted"
to her heart's content in my arms. That was the
first and last punishment for the baby; we older ones kept no
record of ours for obvious reasons — they would have loaded
our memories somewhat! One punishment for which Brother
Will fortified himself with our help I have not forgotten. As
usual on such occasions, he was remanded to the upstairs
porch, and at the foot of the stairs it was noticeable that he
was seized with a strange inability to ascend. In order to
explain his difficulty I must ask the privilege of digressing.
Brother William was a bright and intelligent child with a
great deal of spirit, and he easily devised ways of teasing us
younger ones, who were more sensitive and usually unable to
reply to his sallies of wit. We all loved and admired our
elder brother, but he was more boisterous than we and led us
into many an hilarious game we would not of ourselves have
invented. Often from the shade of our walnut tree on a hot
afternoon of summer would come the warwhoop of our contending
parties as with wooden swords or daggers we fought
our mimic battles.
When our cries reached mother's ears she would arrest
her rioting children, and was sometimes obliged to mete
out summary punishment to the leaders. One Sunday afternoon
it happened that she was thus disturbed in her reading:
wild shouts and the sound of scuffling rent the peaceful air.
We were dispersed, but the punishment of the chief offender.
Brother Will, was postponed until Monday, such a scene not
befitting Sunday. On Monday mother was in an upper room
opening out on that side porch of destiny. In this room the
court was to be held that day; there the culprit was to meet
her at an appointed hour, when his case would be investigated
and proper punishment administered. Father was not at
home, but in any event it usually fell to our dispassionate
mother to punish us children. Will prepared himself for trial
in an unbecomingly hilarious mood. The rest of us were taken
into the secret and went with him to the woodpile, where
he got some hickory splints and we helped him to prepare an