ot believe her. These sad
faults were Katy's misfortunes. She did not know how wrong they were.

But you can see, if you think a moment, that such habits would be a
great trouble in the way of her finding a home, because good people
would not like to take a little child with such naughty ways into their
homes, to be with their own dear children. Still, Katy's pretty face and
bright mind, and the love she was so quick to give to any one who was
kind to her, made people feel like trying to see what they could do for
her.

Three times Mr. Kennedy placed Katy in good homes, in the care of noble
people, who wished to help him in such work. In each instance Katy had
been loved, because she was so bright and sweet and lovable when she
felt like being so; but her sudden fits of anger, and the strange and
naughty things she would say and do, made her new friends feel anxious
and troubled. Yet Katy had never been sent away from these homes.
Perhaps she might have been, but she never waited for that; she ran away
of her own accord each time, without saying a word about it, and nothing
that Biddy or Mr. Kennedy could say could make Katy agree to go back
when once she had run away.

One day Miss Kennedy, who had thought a great deal about this willful
child, said to her brother, "Don't be discouraged about Katy; you and
Biddy will save the dear little thing yet."

"But I do feel a little discouraged," said Mr. Kennedy. "You see, she is
so uncertain; she's tricky as a kitten, and you can never tell what
she'll be at next. If the trouble only all came to us, you know, we
would be glad to bear it, for there is something very dear about little
Katy that pays for care and bother. But how can I go on asking our
friends to put up with such a little harum-scarum? And she _will_ take
things that don't belong to her, and she will deny it. I really don't
know what to do."

Biddy sat sewing, but she listened, and looked very earnest. Miss
Kennedy smiled.

"I've thought of something, Phil," said she. "I think we have been
making a mistake all along in fixing things too easy and pleasant for
Katy. I think she needs to have a weight put on her."

"A weight? How do you mean?"

"Well, I mean this. Katy is very loving, and she is more full of active,
bounding life than any one I ever saw. I don't think she wants to have
things done for her; I think she wants to do things herself. I think she
needs to feel that some one, in some real plain w