stop to
think, and going towards Mary she said, "Have you come to play in the
woods?"

"No," was Mary's reply. "I came to call the folks to dinner."

"Oh, that was you that screamed so loud. I couldn't think who it was,
but it can't be dinner time?"

"Yes 'tis; it's noon."

"Well we don't have dinner until two, and we can stay here till that
time. Won't you play with us?"

"No, I can't, I must go back and work," said Mary.

"Work!" repeated Jenny. "I think it's bad enough to have to live in
that old house without working, but come and see our fish-pond;" and
taking Mary's hand, she led her to a wide part of the stream where the
water had been dammed up until it was nearly two feet deep and clear
as crystal. Looking in, Mary could see the pebbles on the bottom,
while a fish occasionally darted out and then disappeared.

"I made this almost all myself," said Jenny. "Henry wouldn't help me
because he's so ugly, and Rose was afraid of blacking her fingers. But
I don't care Mother says I'm a great,--great,--I've forgotten the
word, but it means dirty and careless, and I guess I do look like a
fright, don't I?"

Mary now for the first time noticed the appearance of her companion,
and readily guessed that the word which she could not remember, was
"slattern." She was a fat, chubby little girl, with a round, sunny
face and laughing blue eyes, while her brown hair hung around her
forehead in short, tangled curls. The front breadth of her pink
gingham dress was plastered with mud. One of her shoe strings was
untied, and the other one gone. The bottom of one pantalet was
entirely torn off, and the other rolled nearly to the knee disclosing
a pair of ankles of no Liliputian dimensions. The strings of her white
sun-bonnet were twisted into a hard knot, and the bonnet itself hung
down her back, partially hiding the chasm made by the absence of three
or four hooks and eyes. Altogether she was just the kind of little
girl which one often finds in the country swinging on gates and making
mud pies.

Mary was naturally very neat; and in reply to Jenny's question as to
whether she looked like a fright, she answered, "I like your face
better than I do your dress, because it is clean."

"Why, so was my dress this morning," said Jenny, "but here can't any
body play in the mud and not get dirty. My pantalet hung by a few
threads, and as I wanted a rag to wash my earthens with, I tore it
off. Why don't you wear pantalets?"

Mar