the
size of a new cent.

"Why, Miss--why, aunt Polly!"

"I've got one on me too," said Flyaway, pulling at her apron sleeve;
"Hollis did it with the tongs."

"It can't be; not a scar like mine."

"Bigger 'n' larger 'n' yours; only but I can't find it," said Flyaway,
carefully twisting around her dainty white arm, which Polly kissed,
and said was as sweet as a peach. "Bigger 'n' larger 'n' yours. Where's
it gone to? O, I feegot--'twas on my _sleeve_, and I never put it on
to-day."

"You're a droll child, not to know the difference between scars and
dirt! When I was almost as young and quite as innocent, that wicked
little boy bit me, and I shall carry the marks of his teeth to my
grave." With another lingering glance at the purple mark, Polly drew
down her sleeve, sighed, and began to knit again.

"Was it the woman's child that made you dig, that you told about last
summer?"

"Yes; I was a bound girl."

"Bound to what?" Dotty was trying to drown the remembrance of Prudy's
ten cents; so she wished to keep Miss Polly talking.

"Bound to Mrs. Potter till I was eighteen years old. Her husband kept
public house. They made a perfect slave of me. When I was twelve
years old I had to milk three cows, besides spinning my day's work on
the flax-wheel. And very often all I had for supper was brown bread
and skim milk. I didn't have any grandfather's house to go to, with a
seat in the trees, and a boat on the water, and a swing, and a summer
house, and a _crocky-set_ (croquet set). Not I!"

Flyaway was cutting paper dolls with all speed, but her sweet little
face was drawn into curves of pity.

"Too bad! Naughty folks to give you _skilmick_."

"I had to scour all the knives too. I did it by drawing them back and
forth into a sand-bank back of the house. This Isaac I speak of was a
lazy boy, and very unkind to me; but his mother wouldn't hear a word
against him. One day I brushed a traveller's coat, and got a silver
quarter for my trouble. I thought everything of that quarter. I had
never had so much money before in my life. I had half a mind to put it
in the Savings Bank; 'and who knows,' thought I, 'but I can add more
to it, one of these days, and buy my time.'"

"Why, Miss Polly, I didn't know you could _buy_ time!"

"But you knew you could throw it away, I suppose," said Polly, with a
sad smile. "What I mean is this: I wanted to pay Mrs. Potter some
money, so I could go free before I was eighteen."

"Then yo