ALICE had always felt that if it had not been for the rain, the devil could never have got close enough to tempt her; but the insistent pattering of three days' rain brought it into Alice's mind that time was flying, and in consequence of this Something had to be Done.
That something presented itself in a more and more definite form all the time. The thing that the devil tempted Alice Marcey to do was to corrupt her children's minds by bribing them. More subtly vicious than authoritarianism, rewards and punishment for conduct seemed to the enlightened parents of the young Marceys. Alice had sometimes trifled with this temptation before. It would be a heart of stone that would not give an unexpected reward sometimes, but she tried to make it clear to their minds that these things were not bribes for goodness. All modern parents know that nothing constructive is happening in a young brain which is merely doing a certain sort of work or following a certain line of conduct because the child is going to be paid for it or punished for it. Children should learn their lessons of life from deeper and higher motives than those of gain or pain.
As the days dripped themselves lugubriously to an end Alice felt that peace had to be attained, even if it were attained by so nefarious a means as bribery and corruption. Peace she must have.
She realized gloomily how much more popular a measure bribery was than the sacred rite of taking the children into her confidence. That measure had not only
