turned out, Dotty really did not deserve to be punished for
wrong stories. She and Prudy had each assisted in breaking the teapot;
one had knocked it off the bureau, and the other had stepped on it. But
Dotty, who gloried in "a fuss," had begged to be the one to tell Susy
the startling news. She wished to see her eyes flash, and hear her
expressions of surprise. She knew that, however angry Susy might be,
there was one magical sentence which would always her to terms:
"Dotty'll go out doors, 'out her hat, get cold, have the _coop_, and
DIE!"

At the bare mention of such a fearful thing, Susy's anger was sure to
cool at once. This time Dotty varied her method a little.

"See," said she, looking out of the window; "the boys has came."

Of course that was the last of Susy's thoughts about the teapot. She
rushed out of doors bareheaded, followed by Dotty. Eddy Johnson was just
hitching Wings to a post near the gate.

"Have they _shoed_ him?" said Susy.

"_Shoed_ him? I should think they had; all of that," replied Eddy,
indignantly.

"Booted him, more like," muttered Charley Piper, in the same tone.

"Why, what do you mean, boys?" said Susy, patting the pony, and gazing
tenderly into his eyes.

"O, we don't mean anything, as I know of. You must run into the house
and ask your mother to come out here," said Eddy, mysteriously.

"Why, it's my own pony, that my own father gave me, and if there's
anything the matter with it I should think you might tell," cried Susy,
her voice shaking with a vague dread of some terrible mishap.

"Well, may be there isn't anything ails him," returned Eddy, coolly. "I
never said there was; but your mother'll know!"

"O, Dotty Dimple, run into the house this very minute, please to,"
exclaimed Susy, "and ask mother--if she's combing her hair, or
_anything_--to come right out here as quick as she can run, and not
wait! O, dear, dear, dear! Why, Dotty Dimple Parlin! you haven't started
yet! Quick! quick! quick!"

Dotty, who had only waited to be spoken to the second time, now ran in
such haste that she stumbled on the piazza steps; but, nothing daunted,
jumped up and went on, delighted to know that this time something had
probably happened. She startled her mother, and called her away from her
toilet, with the sudden cry that the boys and pony were 'most killed.

At the same time she had the pleasure of throwing Prudy into a
panic,--dear little Prudy, who had been for the last five minu