She
clung to the infant rebels, stroked their hair, admired their aprons,
their clean hands, their new boots; and, on being smartly slapped by
Atlantic for putting the elastic of his hat behind his ears, kissed
his hand as if it had offered a caress. 'He's so little,' she said
apologetically, looking up with wet eyes to Edith, who stood near.
CHAPTER IX--MARM LISA'S QUEST
It was not long after this conversation that the twins awoke one
morning with a very frenzy of adventure upon them. It was
accompanied by a violent reaction against all the laws of God and
man, and a desire to devour the tree of knowledge, fruit, limbs, and
trunk, no matter at what cost.
We have no means of knowing whether there was an excess of
electricity in the atmosphere, whether their youthful livers were
disordered, or whether the Evil One was personally conducting the
day's exercises; judged by the light of subsequent events, all of
these suppositions might easily have been true. During the morning
they so demeaned themselves that all Mistress Mary's younger
neophytes became apostates to the true faith, and went over in a body
to the theory of the total depravity of unbaptized infants.
In the afternoon they did not appear, nor did Marm Lisa.
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