Owen had a vague idea that the gardener should not be beating his son Gerald so much, and so he brought it up with his mother.

Alicia, Owen's mother, continued her embroidery while saying, "That's normal among the peasants. You get smacked and yelled at too, but to a more civilized extant as befits your station."

"There has to be a better way," Owen responded stubbornly.

Alicia gave Owen a condescending smile. "So a twelve year old boy knows more about raising children than all our past generations." After shaking her head, she added "Where does all this arrogance come from anyway? What works, works."

Owen considered this. "It is arrogant to think I am the only one right while everyone else is wrong, but this doesn't feel right." He looked back at his mother, who hadn't stopped with her embroidery work. He knew that if he tried to argue with her now, she would get frustrated with the distraction. If she got distracted enough to make a mistake or have to stop, then she would get upset.

Still, he had a vague memory of yelling at kids in the past, and it had been ineffective at stopping bad behavior. It may have stopped his kids for the moment, but they would just do it again later. Not only did they only stop out of fear until he left, but they would increasingly resent and fear him over time.

"How is this memory possible?" Owen wondered. "I am way too young to have had children." Still, he clearly remembered that changing his own behavior worked better with his kids, especially after talking to a licensed clinical social worker who had been counseling one of his kids. "There is no such thing as a LCSW or a field called psychology! Am I losing my mind?" he thought to himself.

Finally, Owen said to his mother "By a certain age, explaining why a child is wrong is much better than just yelling at them to get instant compliance. A child who stops out of fear will just feel resentment and sometimes even think that the adult is unjust and too easily angered. But if an adult can explain why something is wrong, then the child is more likely to not do it anymore. If the child is stubborn, then a longer lecture or a time-out can wear them down. If a punishment is needed as a way to learn that there are consequences for bad behavior, then temporarily taking away something that the child likes will usually leave a less harmful but longer-lasting impression on a child than a beating."

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Alicia stopped and stared at him with a confused expression during his speech. Owen got nervous, thinking "Now I've done it."

Then she relaxed and said, "You come up with the strangest ideas sometimes. Go outside and play. I've got to show Lady Celestine how much more detail I can put into my embroidery than she can, and it is hard to concentrate when you talk about weird ideas as if you would actually know what you are talking about."

Owen gave up and went outside. He didn't hear yelling off by the servants' quarters anymore, so the beating must be over. So he went into the woods past the servants' quarters and found Gerald huddled up in his normal spot behind a large pine tree.

"That seemed worse than normal, what did you do this time?" Owen asked.

Gerald looked up and Owen saw his eyes were red and a little swollen under his blonde bowl cut. "I really hope that's just from crying and not a bruise forming," Owen thought. "No kid should be treated this way, he's only ten!"

"I stole a meat pie from the kitchen," Gerald hesitantly responded as if expecting Owen to get upset.

"Crap! That is why I didn't have a meat pie for lunch even though my mother and older sister had them. When I complained, that just made it worse for Gerald!" Then Owen got curious and asked "How often do you get to eat meat?"

Gerald looked down and said "My family has some meat in the stew always heating in the cauldron in the fire. Nothing as good as the meat pie though."

"I think your father is afraid of getting punished and cast away if you keep taking food out of the kitchen. Then your family would have to find another place to live and work, which won't be nearly as good as here. Didn't your father mention any of that?" Maybe at least I could give him an explanation if no one else will, Owen thought to himself.

"I wasn't listening to him after a while," Gerald said. "I just wanted it to end."

"He's probably too dumb to say all those words together all at once," Owen responded.

"Yeah," Gerald smiled with a far away look.

Owen couldn't think of a way to resolve this. He would get in trouble himself and possibly get Gerald in more trouble by sneaking food out of the kitchen for Gerald. "I have no power to fix this now, but maybe if I inherit the estate I can set aside land for the servants to raise pigs or chickens." Then Owen had an idea. "How long does it take to walk to town?"

Gerald looked confused. "Have you not walked to town before? It's about half an hour."

"Do you want to go to town? I'll notify the maid that I am going with you, so I'll be right back and we will go."

"Fine, I'll be here." Gerald said as I went back to the house with a little excitement. I had only gone to town under supervision in the carriage, so this would be my first walk to town.