ck together 162

"You've made my summer for me, little witch," Cartel said 182

"Ye're a comfortable cricket, when ye want to be. I'd like to
capture ye, to sing on my hearth!" 240

THE CRICKET

CHAPTER ONE

"I won't have it! I won't have it! If they come, I'll run away and
hide!" shouted the child, wildly.

"That will be very rude. No one acts like that--no one except a
barbarian," said Miss Wilder, calmly.

"I want to be a bar----one of those things you said."

"You act like one most of the time."

The child brain caught at a new idea.

"What _is_ that--that what you said?"

"Barbarian? B-a-r-b-a-r-i-a-n," she spelled slowly. "It is a savage
creature with no manners, no morals, no clothes even. It lives in a hut
or a tree, and eats roots and nuts, and nearly raw meat," Miss Wilder
remarked, none too accurately, but slowly, in order to distract
Isabelle's attention from the late subject of unpleasantness. The little
girl considered her words thoughtfully.

"Do they have children?"

"Yes."

"Where do they live?"

"Oh, strange places; Fiji Islands, for one."

"Are there any near here?"

"Not that I know of."

"I want to go live with the bar-barbarians."

Miss Wilder's stern face underwent no change. She answered seriously:

"You would not like it; you would be very uncomfortable. The children
have no pretty clothes, no nice homes with gardens to play in, no kind
parents or patient teachers."

"Do they have horses?"

"I suppose so."

"Do they swim?"

"Probably. They have rude boats called dug-outs," continued Miss Wilder,
glad of an absorbing subject.

"Do the children go in the boats?"

"No doubt."

"They can't get their clothes spoiled if they don't wear any."

"Obviously. Come, now, Isabelle, put on your dress like a nice girl. The
children will be coming to the party, and you won't be dressed."

"I _won't_ put on that dress, and I'm _not_ going to the party, I tell
you; I _hate_ them."

Miss Wilder tried force, but in vain. She tried strategy, with no
results. Isabelle wriggled out of her grasp and darted out of the room.
Miss Wilder called; no reply. She commanded; no answer. Then she closed
her lips more firmly and betook herself to the door of Mrs. Bryce's
room.

"What is it? I told you not to bother me," an irritated voice called, at
her kn