New-York tribune., 1905-01-30
III-BEA TRICE

'T don't think you can make me do it. mother.
| If won't"
I caught my breath when heard those words
spoken IN the clear accents OF my third daughter
at the time aged four years and bit I caught
my breath. stared into the dark eyes which met
| mine unfiinchIngly and deAantly, and wondered
whether my four-year daughter or were most
nearly off our heads
Beatr!ce-Bee we called her-had broken the i'm
TncSiate family pattern with vengeance and was
/ Unlike both Betty and Edith my two elder
daughters. as they were unlike another. She
began in her cradle to develop traits which made
even my easy-going husband scratch his head and
say he couldn't think who earth the child had
thrown back TO, for she like no relation of
either his or mine that he had ever come across
And afraid remarked irritably, more than
Il wish to goodness Nature didn't arrange that
whom 10 acquire our charactersl If child might
start fair from it's parents only and leave remote
ancestors out Of its composition, should know
where we were and have no troubleI"
my belief we never shall know and. aiasl have
have known where we were with our third girl
beasn Tn To wFe she idG sa s
feel bitterly that With her failed.
seemed light in the training Of her oharacter yet
nevertheless. I failed. Some one has said that a
little Bee made me realize the truth OF that sad
She started life by surprising with her coloring
and appearance Neither my bIue-eyed husband
Her eyes were dark, almost black her coioring
was curious clear white not The whteness Of
flowers and framed by the softest dusdest hair
that had not the faintest either s 10
by Jove' Dick exclaimed one day, glancing
beside me to a picture behind her on the wall, the
Kid is the living image OF that outrageous woman
nifcantly
start, for there looked down at me from da tne
pictured face on the wall my little daughters de-
Of dusk black h and and & ea1sd 6 that 9 BE- Bee Of ~b his
neither found happiness for herself nor been
a masterfu woman with an iron will, and a
reckless disregard Of how she got got 6er 0W DICK
gave me of Aunt Hermione of a dead-and-gone
Oddly when l realized the strange likeness be-
tween my small daughter and the pictured race on
'Dick said the childs character ts is SOL so like
that never c saw any She doesn't mind wnat sne
goes through to get her own way If only she s can
like your old aunt. Don't / remember something
rather peculiar about the ss old ID adys & dol
believe" Dick answered with laugh I,d and shrug
most M unworthy subject. SO the story goes and
ended by climbing out OF her window "a and y. running @
woman paid for her folly-she had wretohed life.
Il wish Bee wasn't SO like began again; but
"Don't You worry old lady" he said. cheerily.
blt bless you. you will discipline her all right
She'll be amenabe enough in the long run. ana
knock under Betty did
made my mind that he must be right and
that Bee would learn submission my strong
wllled first born had learned it. But soon found
out nv mistake. Where Bettys will like a
whipcord, Bees like iron; where Betty's
temper would fare up in a passion OF wrath sim
mering down quickly II rose Bees temper
smouldered for hours. If not for days She never
got into passion. but her mouth tishtened into a
hard line, her eyes bazed with defiant resentment,
and | had uncomfortable feeling that she never
really forgot forGave seedlings and punishments
1t was a day after discovery OF her
likeness to Hermione that she looked full into my
face with the words:
II don't think you can make me do It, mother,
and l felt then exactly If / had come full TIT
against a stone wall. She doing her baby
lessons with me- and I had told her TO say her
little again. Why she refused 10 do so
heaven only knows; but she did refuse, and when
/ gravely and sternly insisted upon obedience she
looked It dehanty. but answered me quite
quietly:
Il don't think you make do IT, mother
/ shut my eyes and her still. small. stub
born figure in blue linen smock, her hands clasped
in front OF her. her lips shutting closely ana de-
terIninedly when she had delivered her nat. her