“Alexander,” she said.
“Well, what do you want?” he asked in a voice which plainly indicated
his displeasure.
“I want you to do something for me.”
“Oh, you are always wanting me to do something just when I want to be
doing something else,” said Alexander, and this time he was whining.
In departing on his errand Alexander accidentally ran against his little
sister in the hall. I expected to hear him say, “I beg your pardon” in
the pleasant way that I knew he could say it, but he snapped out
instead:
“Oh, get out of the way, can’t you?”
[Illustration: “OH, GET OUT OF THE WAY, CAN’T YOU?”]
When he returned from the postoffice, Alexander’s mother was out in the
yard trimming the flowers. While Alexander was reporting to her she
happened to drop her scissors. I expected to see her polite and dutiful
son pick them up, as he was close by when the scissors fell; but the boy
paid no attention to the scissors. When his mother said, “Please pick up
my scissors for me, Alexander,” he said:
“What did you drop ’em for?”
I spent the best part of one whole day at Alexander’s home, and never
once during all that day did I hear him speak politely to his mother or
sisters, nor did he observe the ordinary rules of courtesy and good
behavior in their presence. He was continually grumbling and complaining
and finding fault. So I think I have a right to say that this boy is a
good deal of a humbug. Any boy is a humbug who is polite and gracious to
others and in every way discourteous and disagreeable at home. Don’t you
think so, too?