" and instantly the echo from the distant mountain
and a shrill voice behind them, repeated:

"Come and catch us!"

"Oh, oh-o!" cried Dorothy, and Nancy ran to her, and threw her arms
about her.

"You ought not to frighten Dorothy like that!" cried Nancy.

A saucy laugh answered her.

"Well, it isn't nice to be shrieked at, and you do it just like the
echo, you know you do, and it's enough to frighten any one," said Nancy.

The little tease was not in the least abashed. She could imitate almost
any sound that she had ever heard, and each success made her eager to
repeat her efforts at mocking.

"I made old Mrs. Hermanton fly up out of her chair, and drop her ball of
worsted and knitting-needles, when I shouted close to her ear."

"Why, Floretta!" cried Nancy.

Now you think that was horrid, but _I_ tell you it was funny. She'd just
been telling about her darling little lap-dog that died _ten years
ago_, and she got out her handkerchief to cry, and put it up to her
eyes.

"'Oh, if I only could hear his lovely bark again!' she said, and right
behind her chair, I said:

"'Ki-yi! Yip! Yip!' and she jumped up much as a foot from her seat."

Nancy laughed. How could she help it? The old lady had told every man,
woman, and child who sat upon the piazza, how much she had suffered in
the loss of the dog.

One testy old gentleman who was troubled with gout, spoke rather
plainly. "Madam," he said, "I've heard that story every day of this
week, and all I can say is, I wish you had gout in your feet as I have,
and you'd have no time to waste crying for a puppy!"

He certainly was hopelessly rude, but one must admit every day is far
too often to be forced to listen to an uninteresting tale.

Floretta stood looking down at the toe of her shoe. She moved it from
side to side along the grass for a moment, then she spoke again.

"You know old Mr. Cunningham has gout, and is awful cross?"

Dorothy and Nancy nodded. They did indeed know that.

"Well, he sat on the piazza and laughed when I scared Mrs. Hermanton, so
I want to know if he'll think it's funny _every_ time I do things. You
know he puts one foot up on a chair, and every time any one touches that
chair ever so little, he cries: '_Oh_, oh, oh!' and holds on to his
foot.

"The next time I'm near him, I'm going to make b'lieve hit my foot
against something, and then I'll cry out, just 'zactly as he does:

"'_Oh_, oh, oh!' and I'll hold on to my foot," said F