It had been my custom to throw the babes into the river which nature had thoughtfully provided for the purpose, but that night I did not dare to leave the oilery for fear of the constable.  “After all,” I said to myself, “it cannot greatly matter if I put it into this cauldron.  My father will never know the bones from those of a puppy, and the few deaths which may result from administering another kind of oil for the incomparable ol. can. are not important in a population which increases so rapidly.”  In short, I took the first step in crime and brought myself untold sorrow by casting the babe into the cauldron.

The next day, somewhat to my surprise, my father, rubbing his hands with satisfaction, informed me and my mother that he had obtained the finest quality of oil that was ever seen; that the physicians to whom he had shown samples had so pronounced it.  He added that he had no knowledge as to how the result was obtained; the dogs had been treated in all respects as usual, and were of an ordinary breed.  I deemed it my duty to explain—­which I did, though palsied would have been my tongue if I could have foreseen the consequences.  Bewailing their previous ignorance of the advantages of combining their industries, my parents at once took measures to repair the error.  My mother removed her studio to a wing of the factory building and my duties in connection with the business ceased; I was no longer required to dispose of the bodies of the small superfluous, and there was no need of alluring dogs to their doom, for my father discarded them altogether, though they still had an honorable place in the name of the oil.  So suddenly thrown into idleness, I might naturally have been expected to become vicious and dissolute, but I did not.  The holy influence of my dear mother was ever about me to protect me from the temptations which beset youth, and my father was a deacon in a church.  Alas, that through my fault these estimable persons should have come to so bad an end!

Finding a double profit in her business, my mother now devoted herself to it with a new assiduity.  She removed not only superfluous and unwelcome babes to order, but went out into the highways and byways, gathering in children of a larger growth, and even such adults as she could entice to the oilery.  My father, too, enamored of the superior quality of oil produced, purveyed for his vats with diligence and zeal.  The conversion of their neighbors into dog-oil became, in short, the one passion of their lives—­an absorbing and overwhelming greed took possession of their souls and served them in place of a hope in Heaven—­by which, also, they were inspired.

So enterprising had they now become that a public meeting was held and resolutions passed severely censuring them.  It was intimated by the chairman that any further raids upon the population would be met in a spirit of hostility.  My poor parents left the meeting broken-hearted, desperate and, I believe, not altogether sane.  Anyhow, I deemed it prudent not to enter the oilery with them that night, but slept outside in a stable.