make you.'

'But I don't like it; I don't need it,' cried mamma.

'Neither do I, but you give it to me all the same. I'm sure you need
strengthening more than I do, you have so many "trials,"' and Kitty
looked very sly as she quoted one of the words often on her mother's
lips.

'You'd better mind, Carrie; it can't hurt you, and you know you promised
entire obedience. Set a good example,' said aunty.

'But I never thought these little chits would do so well. Ugh, how
disagreeable it is!' And mamma took her dose with a wry face, feeling
that Aunt Betsey was siding with the wrong party.

'Now sit down and hem these towels till dinner-time. I have so much to
do I don't know which way to turn,' continued Kitty, much elated with
her success.

Rest of any sort was welcome, so mamma sewed busily till callers came.
They happened to be some little friends of Kitty's, and she went to them
in the parlor, telling mamma to go up to nurse and have her hair brushed
and her dress changed, and then come and see the guests. While she was
away Kitty told the girls the joke they were having, and begged them to
help her carry it out. They agreed, being ready for fun and not at all
afraid of Mrs. Fairbairn. So when she came in they all began to kiss and
cuddle and praise and pass her round as if she was a doll, to her great
discomfort and the great amusement of the little girls.

While this was going on in the drawing-room, Harry was tutoring his
father in the study, and putting that poor gentleman through a course of
questions that nearly drove him distracted; for Harry got out the
hardest books he could find, and selected the most puzzling subjects. A
dusty old history was rummaged out also, and classical researches
followed, in which papa's memory played him false more than once,
calling forth rebukes from his severe young tutor. But he came to open
disgrace over his mathematics, for he had no head for figures, and, not
being a business man, had not troubled himself about the matter; so
Harry, who was in fine practice, utterly routed him in mental arithmetic
by giving him regular puzzlers, and when he got stuck offered no help,
but shook his head and called him a stupid fellow.

The dinner-bell released the exhausted student, and he gladly took his
son's place, looking as if he had been hard at work. He was faint with
hunger, but was helped last, being 'only a boy,' and then checked every
five minutes for eating too fast. Mamma wa