Johnny did a good deal of thinking, at odd times, the next day, and the more he thought, the more he saw why his mother had wanted him to think, before their next talk. As he picked up his injuries, and looked at them one by one, trying to do it as if he had been somebody else, they looked so very different, that he wondered how he could have been so blind, and when his mother came, as usual, for the talk, he was to beg off from going into particulars. But he not to, for he was very certain that he had never yet been sorry for talking things out with his mother. So he faced the music, and declared himself ready to “begin at the beginning and go on to the end.”  
“What was the first thing that went wrong?” inquired Mrs. Leslie, as she touched up Johnny’s hair with her nice soft fingers, adding, before he could answer, “You shall tell me how the things looked to you yesterday, and then I will turn the glass for you.”
 
“The first thing,” said Johnny, “was, that when I got up my room was cold—or no, not exactly cold, perhaps, but sort of and uncomfortable, and when I opened the register, only cold, cellar-y air came up; and you know, mamma, that generally, when I turn on the heat, it’s warm in five minutes.”
 
“What a comfortable state of things!” said his mother, “to have, always, a nice warm room in which to wash and dress, and what a good thing it was that on the very night when, for the first time in weeks, the furnace fire went out, the weather was so mild that the house was only chilly, not really cold. Next!”
 
“A button came off my new jacket, and though it was the last one, and didn’t matter much, just for one day, it me to have it come off then, when I was in a hurry.”
 
“It was such a good thing that it wasn’t the top button!” said his mother, brightly, “and that I had a new jacket at all, at all! Next!”
 
“I said my prayers too fast, mamma, and I’m afraid I didn’t think them much.”
 
“There is nothing to make up for that, dear,” said his mother, gravely and sadly; “but the ‘hearty repentance,’ and ‘steadfast purpose’ can follow even that downfall, as I think you know.”
 
“I’d be in a bad way if I didn’t, mamma, for it does seem to me that I go down just as fast as I get up! Then I was provoked that I came so near being late for breakfast; I was only just in time, you know, for all I’d got up when I was called.”
 
“But you were in time, dear, and it was not your fault that the button came off your jacket, and delayed you, so that should not have worried you. Well, what came next?”
 
“Oh mamma, you’ll think I’m only a baby!” and Johnny hid his face in his mother’s neck. “I was because we had cakes for breakfast, instead of buckwheat cakes!”
 
“But they were such very good flannel cakes. And that new would almost have made them seem good, even if they had been poor.”
 
“I know—it was only because I was in such a bad humor. The next was my book ; I suppose I did pull too hard, for I felt like pulling something. But it was such a nice strap, when it was new, and such a bother to carry my books in a piece of ! And the ridiculous things went flying all over the entry—or ’most all over.”
 
“And a kind little sister flew to the rescue, and was too loving even to know that she was at,” answered Mrs. Leslie, “and a dear old mother came forward in the handsomest manner, without even waiting to be asked, and the price of a new strap for the sufferer.”
 
“A dear young, lovely, beautiful mother!” and Johnny gave her a hug which made her beg for mercy. Then he went on.
 
“My hat blew off just as I was passing Jim’s place, and he clapped it on my head about five times as hard as he needed to, but you’ll have to let me tell the other end of that, mamma. It was nearly in the when he caught it, and the gutter was full of dirty water and mud, and I never half thanked him, because I was afraid he was making fun of me. Then I had to run to make up the time I had lost talking to Jim, and I just saved my distance—the bell rang before I was fairly in my seat.”
 
“Then you were in time to answer to your name, and didn’t get a bad mark. That was a comfort. Next!&rdqu............