When Charles heard this, he ran away, for he was afraid of being beaten; but, instead of playing quietly with his toys, he went and laid under the great table in the hall and sulked and fretted till dinner-time.

When nurse came to call him to dinner, he said:  “I won’t come; Go away, ugly nurse!”

Then said nurse:  “Master Charles, if you like to punish yourself by going without your dinner, no one will prevent you, I am sure.”

Then Charles began to cry aloud, and tried to tear nurse’s apron; but nurse told him he was a bad boy, and left him.

Now, when Clara sat down to dinner, she said to nurse:  “Where is brother Charles?  Why is he not here?”

“Miss Clara, he is a naughty child,” said nurse, “and chooses to go without his dinner, thinking to vex us; but he hurts no one but himself with his perverse temper.”

“Then,” said Clara, “I do not like to dine while Charles goes without; so I will try and persuade him to come and eat some pie.”

“Well, Miss Clara,” said nurse, “you may go, if you please; but I would leave the bad boy to himself.”

When Clara came to Charles, and asked him if he would come and eat his dinner, he poked out his head, and made such an ugly face that she was quite frightened at him, and ran away.

Nurse did not take the trouble of calling him to tea; and, though he was very hungry, he was too sulky to come without being asked; so he lay under the table, and cried aloud till bedtime.  But when it grew dark, he was afraid to stay by himself, for bad children are always fearful; so he came upstairs and said in a cross, rude tone of voice:  “Nurse, give me something to eat.”

Nurse said:  “Master Charles, if you had been good, you would have had some chicken and some apple-pie for your dinner, and bread and butter and cake for your tea; but as you were such a bad boy, and would not come to your meals, I shall only give you a piece of dry bread and a cup of milk, and you do not deserve even that.”

Then Charles made one of his very worst faces, and threw the bread on the ground, and spilt the milk.

Nurse told him that there were many poor children in the world who would be glad of the smallest morsel of what he so much despised, and that the time would come when he might want the very worst bit of it; and she bade him kneel down and say his prayers, and ask God to forgive him for having been such a wicked boy all day.

But Charles did not mind what she said, and went crying to bed.  Thus ended the first day of Charles Grant’s happiness.

He awoke very early the next morning, and told nurse to get him his breakfast, for he was very hungry.  But nurse said he must wait till eight o’clock, which was the breakfast hour.

He now found it was of no use sulking, as no one seemed to care for his tempers; so he looked about for something to eat, but found nothing but the piece of bread he had thrown on the ground the night before; and he was glad to eat that, and only wished there had been more of it.