plied, bowing and scraping one foot and raising more
dust.

He and Dr. Trumbull assisted Aunt Janet into the buggy, and they drove
off. Then the chief of police discovered that his own horse had gone.
"Did you see which way he went, sis?" he inquired of Lily, and she
pointed down the road, and sobbed as she did so.

The policeman said something bad under his breath, then advised Lily to
run home to her ma, and started down the road.

When he was out of sight, Lily drew back the pink-and-white things from
Johnny's face. "Well, you didn't kill her this time," said she.

"Why do you s'pose she didn't tell all about it?" said Johnny, gaping at
her.

"How do I know? I suppose she was ashamed to tell how she had been
fighting, maybe."

"No, that was not why," said Johnny in a deep voice.

"Why was it, then?"

"SHE KNEW."

Johnny began to climb out of the baby-carriage.

"What will she do next, then?" asked Lily.

"I don't know," Johnny replied, gloomily.

He was out of the carriage then, and Lily was readjusting the pillows
and things. "Get that nice embroidered pillow I threw over the bushes,"
she ordered, crossly. Johnny obeyed. When she had finished putting the
baby-carriage to rights she turned upon poor little Johnny Trumbull, and
her face wore the expression of a queen of tragedy. "Well," said Lily
Jennings, "I suppose I shall have to marry you when I am grown up, after
all this."

Johnny gasped. He thought Lily the most beautiful girl he knew, but to
be confronted with murder and marriage within a few minutes was almost
too much. He flushed a burning red. He laughed foolishly. He said
nothing.

"It will be very hard on me," stated Lily, "to marry a boy who tried to
murder his nice aunt."

Johnny revived a bit under this feminine disdain. "I didn't try to
murder her," he said in a weak voice.

"You might have, throwing her down in all that awful dust, a nice, clean
lady. Ladies are not like boys. It might kill them very quickly to be
knocked down on a dusty road."

"I didn't mean to kill her."

"You might have."

"Well, I didn't, and--she--"

"What?"

"She spanked me."

"Pooh! That doesn't amount to anything," sniffed Lily.

"It does if you are a boy."

"I don't see why."

"Well, I can't help it if you don't. It does."

"Why shouldn't a boy be spanked when he's naughty, just as well as a
girl, I would like to know?"

"Because he's a boy."

Lily looked at Johnny Trumbull. The grea