of them--"Sister's own little honey love." Once, when walking on
Elm Street under the leafless arches of the elms, where she thought
she was quite alone, although it was a very bright, warm afternoon,
and quite dry--it was not a snowy winter--she spoke more loudly than
she intended, and looked up to see another, bigger girl, the daughter
of the Edgham lawyer, whose name was Annie Stone. Annie Stone was
large of her age--so large, in fact, that she had a nickname of
"Fatty" in school. It had possibly soured her, or her over-plumpness
may have been due to some physical ailment which rendered her
irritable. At all events, Annie Stone had not that sweetness and
placidity of temperament popularly supposed to be coincident with
stoutness. She had a bitter and sarcastic tongue for a young girl.
Maria inwardly shuddered when she saw Annie Stone's fat, malicious
face surveying her from under her fur-trimmed hat. Annie Stone was
always very well dressed, but even that did not seem to improve her
mental attitude. Her large, high-colored face was also distinctly
pretty, but she did not seemed to be cognizant of that to the result
of any satisfaction.

"Sister's little honey love!" she repeated after Maria, with fairly a
snarl of satire.

Maria had spirit, although she was for the moment dismayed.

"Well, she is--so there," said she.

"You wait till you have a few more little honey loves," said Annie
Stone, "and see how you feel."

With that Annie Stone went her way, with soft flounces of her short,
stout body, and Maria was left. She was still defiant; her blood was
up. "Sister's little honey love," she said to the baby, in a tone so
loud that Annie Stone must have heard. "Were folks that didn't have
anything but naughty little brothers jealous of her?" Annie Stone
had, in fact, a notorious little brother, who at the early age of
seven was the terror of his sisters and all law-abiding citizens; but
Annie Stone was not easily touched.

"Sister's little honey love," she shouted back, turning a malignant
face over her shoulder. She had that very morning had a hand-to-hand
fight with her naughty little brother, and finally come out
victorious, by forcing him to the ground and sitting on him until he
said he was sorry. It was not very reasonable that she should be at
all sensitive with regard to him.

After Annie Stone had gone out of sight, Maria went around to the
front of the little carriage, adjusted the white fur rug caref