ou go, Ester? On foot? They look pretty greasy; you'll
slip."

"I wish you would go up stairs. I'd rather wash dishes all the
forenoon than have you in the way."

"Birdie," said Sadie gravely, "you and I musn't go near Auntie Essie
again. She's a 'bowwow,' and I'm afraid she'll bite."

Mrs. Ried laughed. She had no idea how sharply Ester had been tried
with petty vexations all that morning, nor how bitter those words
sounded to her.

"Come, Sadie," she said; "what a silly child you are. Can't you do
_any thing_ soberly?"

"I should think I might, ma'am, when I have such a sober and solemn
employment on hand as dish-washing. Does it require a great deal
of gravity, mother? Here, Robin Redbreast, keep your beak out of my
dish-pan."

Minnie, in the mean time, had been seated on the table, directly in
front of the dish-pan.

Mrs. Ried looked around. "O Sadie! what _possessed_ you to put her up
there?"

"To keep her out of mischief, mother. She's Jack Horner's little
sister, and would have had every plum in your pie down her throat,
by this time, if she could have got to them. See here, pussy, if you
don't keep your feet still, I'll tie them fast to the pan with this
long towel, when you'll have to go around all the days of your life
with a dish-pan clattering after you."

But Minnie was bent on a frolic. This time the tiny feet kicked a
little too hard; and the pan being drawn too near the edge, in order
to be out of her reach, lost its balance--over it went.

"O, my patience!" screamed Sadie, as the water splashed over her, even
down to the white stockings and daintily slippered feet.

Minnie lifted up her voice, and added to the general uproar. Ester
left the eggs she was beating, and picked up broken dishes. Mrs.
Ried's voice arose above the din:

"Sadie, take Minnie and go up stairs. You're too full of play to be in
the kitchen."

"Mother, I'm _real_ sorry," said Sadie, shaking herself out of the
great wet apron, laughing even then at the plight she was in.

"Pet, don't cry. We didn't drown after all."

"_Well_! Miss Sadie," Mr. Hammond said, as he met them in the hall.
"What have you been up to now?"

"Why, Mr. Hammond, there's been another deluge; this time of
dish-water, and Birdie and I are escaping for our lives."

"If there is one class of people in this world more disagreeable than
all the rest, it is people who call themselves Christians."

This remark Mr. Harry Arnett made that same Sat