n a dog, I must treat you like one."

"I'd just as lief be tied up as not I like to play dog;" and Nan put on
a don't-care face, and began to growl and grovel on the floor.

Mrs. Jo took no notice, but leaving a book or two and a handkerchief to
hem, she went away, and left Miss Nan to her own devices. This was not
agreeable, and after sitting a moment she tried to untie the cord. But
it was fastened in the belt of her apron behind, so she began on the
knot at the other end. It soon came loose, and, gathering it up, Nan was
about to get out of the window, when she heard Mrs. Jo say to somebody
as she passed through the hall,

"No, I don't think she will run away now; she is an honorable little
girl, and knows that I do it to help her."

In a minute, Nan whisked back, tied herself up, and began to sew
violently. Rob came in a moment after, and was so charmed with the new
punishment, that he got a jump-rope and tethered himself to the other
arm of the sofa in the most social manner.

"I got lost too, so I ought to be tied up as much as Nan," he explained
to his mother when she saw the new captive.

"I'm not sure that you don't deserve a little punishment, for you knew
it was wrong to go far away from the rest."

"Nan took me," began Rob, willing to enjoy the novel penalty, but not
willing to take the blame.

"You needn't have gone. You have got a conscience, though you are a
little boy, and you must learn to mind it."

"Well, my conscience didn't prick me a bit when she said 'Let's get over
the wall,'" answered Rob, quoting one of Demi's expressions.

"Did you stop to see if it did?"

"No."

"Then you cannot tell."

"I guess it's such a little conscience that it don't prick hard enough
for me to feel it," added Rob, after thinking the matter over for a
minute.

"We must sharpen it up. It's bad to have a dull conscience; so you may
stay here till dinner-time, and talk about it with Nan. I trust you both
not to untie yourselves till I say the word."

"No, we won't," said both, feeling a certain sense of virtue in helping
to punish themselves.

For an hour they were very good, then they grew tired of one room,
and longed to get out. Never had the hall seemed so inviting; even the
little bedroom acquired a sudden interest, and they would gladly have
gone in and played tent with the curtains of the best bed. The open
windows drove them wild because they could not reach them; and the outer
world seemed so b