tap the heels of his boots together. He
looked utterly crushed. A large city was just as strange to him as it
was to Dotty, and he could only obey his aunt's orders, and try to hope
for the best. Dotty seemed to be the only one who felt like saying a
word, and she talked incessantly.

"O, what'd you send the p'lice after her for? To put her in the lockup,
and make her cry and think she's been naughty? It's the awfulest city
that ever I saw. Folks might send her home, if they were a mind to, but
they won't. They don't care what 'comes of you. There's cars and stages
going to which ways, and nothing but 'No Smoking,' inside. And I went
and peeped in at a window, and there was _onions_! And how'd I know
where to go to? There was a girl with a long curl, and she said, 'Go to
the 'pothecary's;' and what would Fly have known where she meant? And he
looked in a Dictionary, and put me in a stage,--I was going to tell you
about that when I got ready,--and asked me if I had ten cents, and I
had; and then I forgot what the number was, and that was the time I saw
the onions, or I should have gone right into somebody's else's house.
And I knew there was a church with ivy round, but Fly don't know; she's
nothing but a baby. And I should have thought, Horace Clifford, you
might have given her that money! That was what made her run off; you was
real cruel, and that's why I wouldn't mind what you said. And--and--"

"Hush," said Aunt Madge, brushing back a spray of fair curls, which the
wind had tossed over her forehead. "I don't allow a word of scolding in
my house. If you don't feel pleasant, Dotty, you may go into the back
yard and scold into a hole."

Dotty stopped suddenly. She knew her aunt was displeased; she felt it in
the tones of her voice.

"Dotty, the wind has been at play with your hair as well as mine.
Suppose we both go up stairs a few minutes?"

"There, auntie's going to reason with me," thought Dotty, winding slowly
up the staircase; "I didn't suppose she was one of that kind."

"No dear, I'm _not_ one of that kind," said Mrs. Allen, roguishly; for
she saw just what the child was thinking. "'I come not here to talk.'
All I have to say is this: Disobey again, and I send you home
immediately."

"Yes'm," said the little culprit, blushing crimson. "Now, brush your
hair, and let us go down." This was the only allusion Mrs. Allen ever
made to the subject; but after this, she and Dotty understood each other
perfectly. D