er, "There's Sister Marie-Aimee scolding again." Her
daring frightened me, but Sister Marie-Aimee used to pretend not to
hear her. But one day she said, "I forbid you to answer me, little
dwarf." Ismerie answered, "No-sums." This was a word which we had
made up ourselves. It meant, "Look at my nose and see if I care."
Sister Marie-Aimee reached for a cane. I was dreadfully afraid she was
going to whip Ismerie. But Ismerie threw herself down flat on her
stomach and wriggled about and made funny noises. Sister Marie-Aimee
pushed her away with her foot, threw the cane away, and said, "Oh, you
horrible little thing!" Afterwards I noticed that she used to avoid
looking at her, and never seemed to hear the rude things she said. But
she forbade us to carry her about on our backs.

That never prevented Ismerie from climbing on to mine like a monkey. I
hadn't the courage to push her away, and I used to stoop down a little
to let her get well up. She always wanted to ride when we went up to
the dormitory. It was very hard for her to get up the stairs. She
used to laugh about it herself, saying that she hopped up like an old
hen going to roost. As Sister Marie-Aimee always went upstairs first,
I used to wait and go up among the last girls. But sometimes Sister
Marie-Aimee would turn round suddenly. Then Ismerie slipped down my
body to the ground with wonderful quickness and skill. I always felt a
little bit awkward when I caught Sister Marie-Aimee's eye, and Ismerie
always said, "See what a fool you are. You were caught again." Marie
Renaud would never let her climb up on to her back. She used to say
that she wore her dress out and made it dirty.

Esmerie was a little chatterbox, but Marie Renaud hardly ever talked at
all. Every morning she used to help me to make my bed. She would pass
her hands over the sheets to smooth them out, and always refused my
help in making her bed, because she said I rolled the sheets all kinds
of ways. I never could understand why her bed was so smooth when she
got up. One day she told me that she pinned her sheets and her
blankets to the mattress. She had all kinds of little hiding-places
full of all kinds of things. At table she always used to eat some of
yesterday's dessert. The dessert of the day went into her pocket. She
used to finger it there, and would munch a little bit of it from time
to time. I often found her sitting in corners making lace with a pin.
H