had gone a little too far.

"I'm going to invent a swear word of my own," he declared.

"God will punish you if you do," said Dora solemnly.

"Then I think God is a mean old scamp," retorted Davy. "Doesn't He know
a fellow must have some way of 'spressing his feelings?"

"Davy!!!" said Dora. She expected that Davy would be struck down dead on
the spot. But nothing happened.

"Anyway, I ain't going to stand any more of Mrs. Lynde's bossing,"
spluttered Davy. "Anne and Marilla may have the right to boss me, but
SHE hasn't. I'm going to do every single thing she told me not to do.
You watch me."

In grim, deliberate silence, while Dora watched him with the fascination
of horror, Davy stepped off the green grass of the roadside, ankle deep
into the fine dust which four weeks of rainless weather had made on the
road, and marched along in it, shuffling his feet viciously until he was
enveloped in a hazy cloud.

"That's the beginning," he announced triumphantly. "And I'm going to
stop in the porch and talk as long as there's anybody there to talk
to. I'm going to squirm and wriggle and whisper, and I'm going to say
I don't know the Golden Text. And I'm going to throw away both of my
collections RIGHT NOW."

And Davy hurled cent and nickel over Mr. Barry's fence with fierce
delight.

"Satan made you do that," said Dora reproachfully.

"He didn't," cried Davy indignantly. "I just thought it out for myself.
And I've thought of something else. I'm not going to Sunday School
or church at all. I'm going up to play with the Cottons. They told me
yesterday they weren't going to Sunday School today, 'cause their mother
was away and there was nobody to make them. Come along, Dora, we'll have
a great time."

"I don't want to go," protested Dora.

"You've got to," said Davy. "If you don't come I'll tell Marilla that
Frank Bell kissed you in school last Monday."

"I couldn't help it. I didn't know he was going to," cried Dora,
blushing scarlet.

"Well, you didn't slap him or seem a bit cross," retorted Davy. "I'll
tell her THAT, too, if you don't come. We'll take the short cut up this
field."

"I'm afraid of those cows," protested poor Dora, seeing a prospect of
escape.

"The very idea of your being scared of those cows," scoffed Davy. "Why,
they're both younger than you."

"They're bigger," said Dora.

"They won't hurt you. Come along, now. This is great. When I grow up
I ain't going to bother going to church at