n dragging the dirt away, on her trailing
skirts, just as the indefatigable sweeper had collected it in a pile.

All at once, pert little Susey Pimble opened the parlor door and
swinging herself outward, said, "I want the dining-room castors and
tea-cups, and mamma says I am to have them and you are to come and give
them to me."

The father rested his arms on the broom handle, and turning his face
toward his hopeful daughter, who was a "scion of the old stock," said,
"I will come soon as I have swept the floor."

"I cannot wait," returned Susey, sharply, "I must have them this
moment."

The father laid down his broom passively, and saying, "What an impatient
little miss you are!" clappered off to the dining-room, and brought
forth the desired articles on a waiter.

Miss Susey, all atilt with delight, danced forward and caught it from
her father's hands; but its weight proved too much for her little arms,
and down it went to the floor with a fearful crash! Susey sprang back
with a frightened aspect at the mischief she had done, and Peggy Nonce,
dropping her rolling-pin, rushed out of the pantry and beheld the
fragments of broken china scattered over the floor. Her face crimsoned
with anger.

"What a destructive little minx!" she exclaimed, glaring on the
offending Susey. "How dared you meddle with those dishes?"

"Mamma said I might have them to play house with," answered Susey, with
flashing eyes.

"Who ever heard of such a thing as giving a child a china tea set to
play with?" said Peggy, holding up her bare, brawny arms in amazement.

"My mother has heard of such a thing; and she knows more than fifteen
women like you, old aunt Peggy Nonce," returned Miss Susey, with the air
of a tragedy queen.

The unusual sounds aroused Mrs. Pimble, who appeared at the parlor door
with a goose-quill behind her ear, and a written scroll in her hand.
When her eyes fell on the spectacle in the centre of the kitchen, she
stamped violently, and exclaimed, in a tempestuous tone, "What does this
mean?" Mr. Pimble slunk away into a corner, while Peggy pursed up her
lips with a defiant expression, and Susey grew suddenly very meek and
blushing-faced.

Mrs. Pimble's eyes followed her husband. "You crawling, contemptible
thing," she exclaimed, "have you grown so stupid and insensate that you
cannot comprehend a simple question? Again I demand of you, what does
this mean?" and she pointed her finger sternly to the broken fragments