on the sofa. Sarah rose, picked up Johnny, and carried him, kicking
and roaring, out of the room; in return for which attention she
received sundry bites. The footman, who had announced the doctor,
picked up the urn, that being all that was in his department. Mr Easy
threw himself panting in agony on the other sofa, and Dr Middleton was
excessively embarrassed how to act: he perceived that Mr Easy required
his assistance, and that Mrs Easy could do without it; but how to
leave a lady, who was half really and half pretendedly in hysterics,
was difficult; for if he attempted to leave her, she kicked and
flounced, and burst out the more. At last Dr Middleton rang the bell,
which brought the footman, who summoned all the maids, who carried Mrs
Easy upstairs, and then the Doctor was able to attend to the only
patient who really required his assistance. Mr Easy explained the
affair in few words, broken into ejaculations from pain, as the Doctor
removed his stockings. From the applications of Dr Middleton, Mr Easy
soon obtained bodily relief; but what annoyed him still more than his
scalded legs, was the Doctor having been a witness to his infringement
of the equality and rights of man. Dr Middleton perceived this, and
he knew also how to pour balm into that wound.

"My dear Mr Easy, I am very sorry that you have had this accident, for
which you are indebted to Mrs Easy's foolish indulgence of the boy;
but I am glad to perceive that you have taken up those parental duties
which are inculcated by the Scriptures. Solomon says, 'that he who
spares the rod, spoils the child,' thereby implying that it is the
duty of a father to correct his children, and in a father, the so
doing does not interfere with the rights of man, or any natural
equality, for the son being a part or portion of the father, he is
only correcting his own self; and the proof of it is, that a father,
in punishing his own son, feels as much pain in so doing as if he were