he handkerchief she fell, rolling down a whole
flight of stairs; and, when her fall was at last stopped by the
landing-place, she did not cry, but she writhed as if she was in great
pain.

"Where are you hurt, my love?" said Mr. Gresham, who came instantly, on
hearing the noise of some one falling down stairs.

"Where are you hurt, my dear?"

"Here, Papa," said the little girl, touching her ankle, which she had
decently covered with her gown: "I believe I am hurt here, but not
much," added she, trying to rise; "only it hurts me when I move."

"I'll carry you, don't move then," said her father; and he took her up
in his arms.

"My shoe, I've lost one of my shoes," said she. Ben looked for it upon
the stairs, and he found it sticking in a loop of whipcord, which was
entangled round one of the balusters. When this cord was drawn forth, it
appeared that it was the very same jagged, entangled piece which Hal had
pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with running up and down
stairs, whipping the balusters with it, as he thought he could convert
it to no better use; and with his usual carelessness, he at last left it
hanging just where he happened to throw it, when the dinner-bell rang.
Poor little Patty's ankle was terribly sprained, and Hal reproached
himself for his folly, and would have reproached himself longer,
perhaps, if Lady Di. Sweepstakes' sons had not hurried him away.

In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to do; but she sat
upon the sofa, and she said that "she did not feel the pain of her ankle
so _much_ whilst Ben was so good as to play at _jack-straws_ with her."

"That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured to those who
are younger and weaker than yourself," said his uncle, smiling at seeing
him produce his whipcord, to indulge his little cousin with a game at
her favorite cat's-cradle. "I shall not think you one bit less manly,
because I see you playing at cat's-cradle with a child six years old."

Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for when he
returned in the evening and saw Ben playing with his little cousin, he
could not help smiling contemptuously, and asked if he had been playing
at cat's-cradle all night. In a heedless manner he made some inquiries
after Patty's sprained ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he
had heard at Lady Diana Sweepstakes'--news which he thought would make
him appear a person of vast importance.

"Do