you to keep still,
too!

"Look out there! Don't you spatter no grease a-fryin' that mush, or
you'll wish you hadn't. I believe in the good old-fashioned rod, and
there's one stuck up over that door, handy like. See it?"

To her great dismay, looking in the direction indicated, Rosa beheld a
cruel whip, the first one ever intended for her. Her little frame shook
so violently from fear that grandpa could endure it no longer.

"Tut, tut, Sary; Rosa ain't the child to need no whippin', and don't
skeer the poor lamb so.

"Never mind, dearie," reaching out for her a withered hand, "Sary don't
mean it; Sary's a good woman, yes, a very good woman."

"Father, I want you to remember right now that you ain't to put no say
in when I correct her. There ain't but one boss here, and that's me, so
there! Do you understand? I 'spose not, though, fer you ain't got no
sense. You're tryin' enough, goodness knows, that there ain't many but
what'd use the rod on you."

So blinded by tears that she could not see what she was doing, by
accident Rosa dropped a piece of the fried mush upon the floor.

"There!" shrieked Mrs. Gray, "what did I tell you? I'm a-goin' to lick
you this very minute, now you jest see. I guess you'll learn to mind
after I've done it a few times."

"Grandpa!" and with a bound Rosa jumped into the old man's outstretched
arms, while tears chased each other in quick succession down his faded
cheeks.

Making an effort to arise hastily from her chair, Mrs. Gray with a sharp
cry of pain, suddenly sank backward again.

"Oh, my ankle's plum give out--I can't take one step! But you never
mind, I'll lick you some other time, and you needn't fergit it neither.
Git right down and clean up that mush, and fix some hot water fer me to
put my foot in."

Seeing the helpless condition of the tyrant, Rosa waited long enough
before obeying to kiss grandpa, and for him to whisper encouragingly:

"Never mind, dearie; we'll go the very first chance we have, and if we
can't do no better, we'll run off."

[Illustration: "There!" shrieked Mrs. Gray, "what did I tell you?" (Page
44.)]

With some degree of composure, Rosa performed her tasks, for evidently,
judging from the groans of the patient, the promised "lickin'" would be
indefinitely postponed.

While eating supper, Mrs. Gray divided her attentions about equally
between the two helpless victims of her wrath. The sprained ankle was
entirely due to the fact that grandpa was