to see it."

So he sprang upon his waiting steed; and as Lulu, ready dressed for her
ride, and eager to take it, stepped out upon the veranda, she just
caught a glimpse of the two horses and their riders disappearing down
the avenue.

She turned white with anger at the sight, and stamped her foot in fury,
exclaiming between her clinched teeth, "It's the meanest trick I ever
saw!"

There were several servants standing near, one of them little Elsie's
nurse, an old negress, Aunt Dinah, who, having lived in the family for
more than twenty years, felt herself privileged to speak her mind upon
occasion, particularly to its younger members.

"Now, Miss Lu," she said, "dat's not de propah way fo' you to talk
'bout dis t'ing; kase dat pony b'longs to Miss Rosie, an' co'se she hab
de right to ride him befo' anybody else."

"You've no call to put in your word, and I'm not going to be lectured
and reproved by a servant!" retorted Lulu passionately; and turning
quickly away, she strode to the head of the short flight of steps
leading down into the avenue, and stood there leaning against a pillar,
with her back toward the other occupants of the veranda. Her left arm
was round the pillar, and in her right hand she held her little
riding-whip.

She was angry at Dinah, furiously angry at Rosie; and when the next
minute something--Rosie's dog, she supposed--tugged at her skirts, she
gave a vicious backward kick without turning her head.

Instantly a sound of something falling, accompanied by a faint,
frightened little cry, and chorus of shrieks of dismay from older voices
flashed upon her the terrible knowledge that she had sent her baby
sister rolling down the steps to the hard gravel-walk below.

She clutched at her pillar, almost losing consciousness for one brief
moment, in her dreadful fright.

Violet's agonized cry, as she came rushing from the open doorway, "My
baby! oh, my baby! she's killed!" roused her: and she saw Dinah pick up
the little creature from the ground, and place it in its mother's arms,
where it lay limp and white, like a dead thing, without sense or motion;
the whole household, young and old, black and white, gathering round in
wild excitement and grief.

No one so much as glanced at her, or seemed to think of her at all:
their attention was wholly occupied with the injured little one.

She shuddered as she caught a glimpse of its deathlike face, then put
her hand over her eyes to shut out the fear