uch to Aunt Caroline, because I knew she didn't
like me, and I suppose I was rather spoiled by every one else being
_too_ good to me. But I looked down at my old book, which was open at
'Trefolium: Clover.' And there I read--oh, Hilda, it is really too bad
to tell!--I read: 'The teeth bristle-form'--and hers did stick out
nearly straight!--'corolla mostly withering or persistent; the
claws'--and then I began to laugh, for it was _exactly_ like Aunt
Caroline herself; she was _so_ withering, and _so_ persistent! And I sat
there and giggled, a great girl of thirteen, till I got perfectly
hysterical. The more I laughed, the angrier she grew, of course; till at
last she went out into the kitchen and slammed the door after her. But I
heard her telling Mother that that gal of hers appeared to be losing
such wits as she had,--not that 't was any great loss, as fur as she
could see. Wasn't that dreadful, Hildegarde? Of course I was wheeled
over to her house the next day, and begged her pardon; but she was still
withering and persistent, though she said, 'Very excusable!' at last."

"Why, Rose!" said Hildegarde, laughing. "I didn't suppose you were
_ever_ naughty, even when you were a baby."

"Oh, indeed I was!" answered Rose; "just as naughty as any one else, I
suppose. Did I ever tell you how I came near making poor Bubble deaf?
That wasn't exactly naughty, because I didn't mean to do anything bad;
but it was funny. I must have been about five years old, and I used to
sit in a sort of little chair-cart that Father made for me. One day
Mother was washing, and she set me down beside the baby's cradle (that
was Bubble, of course), and told me to watch him, and to call her if he
cried. Well, for a while, Mother said, all was quiet. Then she heard
Baby fret a little, and then came a queer sort of noise, she could not
tell what, and after that quiet again. So she thought what a nice,
helpful little girl I was getting to be; and when she came in she said,
'Well, Pinkie, you stopped the baby's fretting, didn't you?'

"'Oh, yes, Mother!' I said, as pleased as possible. 'I roared in his
ear!' You may imagine how frightened Mother was; but fortunately it did
him no harm."

Here the road dipped down into a gully, and Dr. Abernethy had to pick
his way carefully among loose stones. Presently the stone-walls gave
place to a most wonderful kind of fence,--a kind that even country-bred
Rose had never seen before. When the great trees, the gi