ctly welcome!"

"What are you talking about?" cried Annie, indignantly; for she thought
she saw a look of surprise and contempt on Flossy's face, and fancied
that Flossy despised her because she had a weakness for fruit-cake.

"I wonder if you take me for a pig, Susy Parlin! I heard what your
mother said about that cake! She said it was too dry for her company,
but it was too rich for little girls, and we must only eat a _teeny_
speck at a time. I told my mamma, and she laughed, to think such mean
dried-up cake was too rich for little girls!"

Susy felt her temper rising, but her desire to be polite did not desert
her.

"It _was_ rich, nice cake, Annie; but mother said the slices had been
cut a great while, and it was drying up. Let's not talk any more about
it."

"O, but I _shall_ talk more about it," cried Annie, still more
irritated; "you keep hinting that I tell wrong stories and steal cake;
yes, you do! and then you ain't willing to let me speak!"

All this sounded like righteous indignation, but was only anger. Annie
was entirely in the wrong, and knew it; therefore she lost her temper.

Susy had an unusual amount of self-control at this time, merely because
she had the truth on her side. But her dignified composure only vexed
Annie the more.

"I won't stay here to be imposed upon, and told that I'm a liar and a
thief; so I won't! I'll go right home this very minute, and tell my
mother just how you treat your company!"

And, in spite of all Susy could say, Annie threw on her hood and cloak,
and flounced out of the room; forgetting, in her wrath, to take off
Susy's red scarf, which was still festooned about her head.

"Well, I'm glad she's gone," said Flossy, coolly, as the door closed
with a slam. "She's a bold thing, and my mother wouldn't like me to play
with her, if she knew how she acts! She said 'victuals' for food, and
that isn't _elegant_, mother says. What right had she to set up and say
she'd be Mrs. Piper? So forward!"

After all, this was the grievous part of the whole to Flossy,--that she
had to take an inferior part in the play.

"But I'm _sorry_ she's gone," said Susy, uneasily. "I don't like to have
her go and tell that I wasn't polite."

"You _was_ polite," chimed in little Prudy, from the sofa; "a great deal
politer'n she was! I wouldn't care, if I would be you, Susy. I don't
wish Annie was dead, but I wish she was a duck a-sailin' on the water!"

The children went back to the gam