s was during Split's
convalescence--a reign of terror for the whole household; for to the
natural taste she possessed for bullying, Split Madigan then added the
whims and caprices of the invalid, who uses her weaknesses as a cat of a
hundred tails with which to scourge her victims into compliance.

She was loath to get well, this tyrannical, hot-tempered, short-haired
Zingara, who led her people such a merry dance, and she left the
self-indulgent land of convalescence and the bed in the big back room
with regret.

THE SHUT-UPS

It was an early-morning rite practised by the twins, its performance
hidden from everybody but each other, to see whether Dr. Murchison's
prophecy had come true.

"There were once two little girls--twins," began the old doctor,
significantly, the day Bep and Fom were vaccinated, after battling
desperately against precedence, in the doctor's very office. "Now all
twins love each other dearly."

The twins looked at him pityingly. To be so old and so ignorant!

"Yes, they do," he insisted. "Everybody knows they're fonder of each
other than the closest sisters."

Bep glanced at Fom and Fom looked at Bep; there was something almost
Chinese in the irony of their eyes; they knew just how fond of each
other sisters can be! But they politely suppressed their incredulous
grins.

"Well," resumed the old doctor, realizing how lacking in conviction his
comparison might seem to a Madigan, "well, these twins were the
exception: they did not love each other."

There was an interested movement from Bep.

"They hated each other."

Fom looked up eagerly; there was something human about such a tale. She
felt her respect for Dr. Murchison reviving.

"They fought from morning till night. There was never a moment's peace
when the two were together. Each was so jealous of the other that she
would rather do without, herself, than share with her twin. It was
disgraceful."

The twins leaned forward, charmed.

The doctor looked over his spectacles at them; there was no mistaking
the effect he had produced. "Everybody warned them that unless they
stopped squabbling, something dreadful would happen to them. But they
never believed it till one day--"

The twins held their breath. Dr. Murchison went to the library and took
out a book. He knew the value of a dramatic pause.

"--till one day they waked up in the morning and found that they
were--stuck--fast--together--for life! Everything the dark on