Amy was obliging, and Charley not backward in asking favors,
so the lean and hungry purse often brought its pressing needs to the
notice of its rich relation.

"Amy is a trump!" said Charley, penitently, "and I take it all back. I
am as good a friend to Jack as she is, but I can't exactly swallow the
rooster. He sticks in my throat yet."

"That will wear away in time," said Bertie.

"If the rooster troubles you, what do you think of Jack? He has a bigger
lump in his throat than you have, and one that will not go down in a
hurry, I'll warrant."

"And I pity him," added Amy. "He stole the poor rooster and murdered him
in cold blood, but he is sorry for it, and would bring him to life again
if he could. But he cannot do that. He must be haunted forever by its
ghost instead."

"Ghost of a rooster!" murmured Charley, in an undertone. But Amy heard
it.

"Ghost of an evil action," she said, looking at Charley, severely. "He
would be rather a respectable boy, if he was not a Midnight. You cannot
expect much of a born Midnight."

"No," said Charley.

It was agreed that to be a born Midnight was a serious misfortune, which
might happen to anybody. It did happen to poor Jack, and so they pitied
him.

CHAPTER IX.

FLORA AN EXILE.

Flora did not wait to receive her perfumery. When Jack appeared on the
field she left it, to express her views to Dinah on the subject of bad
boys; and as Dinah had not the power of expressing her sentiments in
return, she was not disturbed by the spirit of contradiction.

When she got tired of talking to Dinah, she walked over to state her
grievance to Grandma, and to be on hand when the tarts were distributed.
Flora was not old enough to go to school. Her troubles in that direction
had not yet begun, but lunch with her was a very important matter, and
she never failed to be present when it was passed round. Grandma always
had something good ready for the children. "The dear things get so
hungry studying," she said. When she was young, three months schooling
in the winter was enough for any one.

It was early in the day for lunch, (breakfast was a little more than an
hour old), but Flora could not be put off. She did not possess the
virtue of patience. So when the children happened in as they were going
to school, she stood at the window eating her way through an enormous
tart, which had been made expressly for her: but why the Baby Pitcher
should have the largest tart, only Gra