selves, and Frank had told me all about his part
in it. Indeed, we had just finished our talk, and
Frank was in the next room waiting for the type-
writer to copy a note I had dictated to ask his
father not to lick the boy. Frank feared his
father, and I knew that the licking would be, not
to correct the boy, but to sate the anger of the
parent and salve his wounded pride. Children
know, and I know, and you know how many a
licking is as selfish as that. Well, as the mother
ended her tirade, the boy came back with the
letter to be signed. His face fell when he saw
his mother. ‘Now, Frank,’ I said, ‘tell your
mother what you have told me.’ He did. She
sank into a chair with a frightened little sigh: ‘ Well
who would have believed it?’ Another mother,
in an exactly similar situation, after nearly faint-
ing away, suddenly arose and, with the image of
Mrs. A. plainly in her mind, persuaded her little
Frankie to repudiate his confession and stick to
the lie. Her little Frankie didn’t turn out as well,
but the one I saved from a ‘lickin’’ has been a
princely little fellow ever since this, his first real
lesson.”
Experiences like these would make an ordinary man feel like “licking” Frankie’s busy father and humiliating his silly mother, and Judge Lindsey has some very healthy, human feel
