Dear Enemy

At that my Irish blood came to the surface, and I told him that if

God had planned to make all of these 113 little children into useless,

ignorant, unhappy citizens, I was going to fool God! That we weren't

educating them out of their class in the least. We were educating them

INTO their natural class much more effectually than is done in the

average family. We weren't trying to force them into college if they

hadn't any brains, as happens with rich men's sons; and we weren't

putting them to work at fourteen if they were naturally ambitious,

as happens with poor men's sons. We were watching them closely and

individually and discovering their level. If our children showed an

aptitude to become farm laborers and nurse-maids, we were going to teach

them to be the best possible farm laborers and nurse-maids; and if they

showed a tendency to become lawyers, we would turn them into honest,

intelligent, open-minded lawyers. (He's a lawyer himself, but certainly

not an open-minded one.)

He grunted when I had finished my remarks, and stirred his tea

vigorously. Whereupon I suggested that perhaps he needed another lump of

sugar, and dropped it in, and left him to absorb it.

The only way to deal with trustees is with a firm and steady hand. You

have to keep them in their places.

Oh, my dear! that smudge in the corner was caused by Singapore's black

tongue. He is trying to send you an affectionate kiss. Poor Sing thinks

he's a lap dog--isn't it a tragedy when people mistake their vocations?

I myself am not always certain that I was born an orphan asylum

superintendent.

Yours, til deth,

S. McB.

SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE,

JOHN GRIER HOME,

April 4.

THE PENDLETON FAMILY,

Palm Beach, Florida.

Dear Sir and Madam:

I have weathered my first visitors' day, and made the trustees a

beautiful speech. Everybody said it was a beautiful speech--even my

enemies.

Mr. Gordon Hallock's recent visit was exceptionally opportune; I gleaned

from him many suggestions as to how to carry an audience.

"Be funny."--I told about Sadie Kate and a few other cherubs that you

don't know.

"Keep it concrete and fitted to the intelligence of your audience."--I

watched the Hon. Cy, and never said a thing that he couldn't understand.

"Flatter your hearers."--I hinted delicately that all of these new

reforms were due to the wisdom and initiative of our peerless trustees.

"Give it a high moral tone, with a dash of pathos."--I dwelt upon the

parentless condition of these little wards of Society. And it was very

affecting--my enemy wiped away a tear!