by E. Nesbit and Edgar Jepson

“ Money is scarce in Dipling; and thanks to my aunt I know an Indian muslin when I see it.
"You won't kill him! Oh, promise me you won't! I could not bear it!" cried Saccharissa. Her voice was husky; she put her hand up to her eyes as though to shut out the picture of Jock's death agony ”

“ Life amid flowering meadows and green lanes ever seems to lack purpose, earnestness, effort. In teaching Jock not to eat Turkish slippers I should be pursuing that arduous path of life which I have always set before me ”

“ This lesson, the most frequent and the most difficult, engrossed us during the long walks we took through the beautiful country, so that the silver may-bushes and the golden buttercups, the green fern-fringed lanes and the dim woodland ways, left us almost equally unappreciative. ”

“ I see what it is: you are so used to doing cruel things that you don't think anything of it. You are hardened. But I tell you quite plainly that if I see you ill-treating that poor, harmless little dog again, or hear of it, I will write to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and you will be punished. ”

“ People do not wear gloves—and new gloves—in country lanes for nothing. Plainly she was on her way to one of the Dipling social functions.
"But it does matter, indeed," I said earnestly. "And I am very sorry."
I turned to Jock, who stood a few yards off, wagging a careless tail. "Miserable wretch," I said in a terrible voice, "you have committed your last crime, and I shall have you executed!"
"Oh, no, no!" said Saccharissa. "Poor little dog, he didn't mean to!" ”

“ She stopped a moment, breathing quickly, and before I could protest, she went on: "I 've always been told it; and now I see it's true: wicked men are always cruel! There ought to be a law to punish such fiends! And—and I think what they say about you is quite right. It's——I wonder you aren't ashamed! Oh, how can you do such wicked things!"
"Would you like to beat him yourself?" I asked gloomily.
Her lips—I think she had shut them on a sob—opened in a little gasp. She stepped back from the switch I held out to her ”