ashed, consented, and Mary ran
joyfully up stairs with the bucket of clear, cold water, which was so
soothing in its effects upon the feeble child, that in a short time
she fell into a deep slumber. Mary gently laid her down, and then
smoothing back the few silken curls which grew around her forehead,
and kissing her white cheek, she returned to the kitchen, determined
to please Miss Grundy that day, if possible.

But Miss Grundy was in the worst of humors, and the moment Mary
appeared she called out, "Go straight back, and fetch that young one
down here. Nobody's a goin' to have you racin' up stairs every ten
minutes to see whether or no she sleeps with her eyes open or shet.
She can stay here as well as not, and if she begins to stir, Patsy can
jog the cradle."

Mary cast a fearful glance at Patsy, who nodded and smiled as if in
approbation of Miss Grundy's command. She dared not disobey, so Alice
and her cradle were transferred to the kitchen, which was all day long
kept at nearly boiling heat from the stove room adjoining. Twice Mary
attempted to shut the door between, but Miss Grundy bade her open it
so she could "keep an eye on all that was going on." The new sights
and faces round her, and more than all, Patsy's strange appearance,
frightened Alice, who set up such loud screams that Miss Grundy shook
her lustily, and then cuffed Patsy, who cried because the baby did,
and pulling Mary's hair because she "most knew she felt gritty," she
went back to the cheese-tub, muttering something about "Cain's being
raised the hull time."

At last, wholly exhausted and overcome with the heat Alice ceased
screaming, and with her eyes partly closed, she lay panting for
breath, while Mary, half out of her senses tipped over the dishwater,
broke the yellow pitcher, and spilled a pan of morning's milk.

"If there's a stick on the premises, I'll use it, or my name isn't
Grundy," said the enraged woman, at the same time starting for a clump
of alders which grew near the brook.

At this stage of affairs, Sal Furbush came dancing in curtseying,
making faces, and asking Mary if she thought "the temperature of the
kitchen conducive to health."

Mary instinctively drew nearer to her, as to a friend, and grasping
her dress, whispered, "Oh, Sally, Aunt Sally, don't let her whip me
for nothing," at the same time pointing towards Miss Grundy, who was
returning with an alder switch, stripping off its leaves as she came.

"Whip you? I