hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.'"

"Yes," said Margaret. "Well--thank you, Grace! I just wanted to hear it
in your voice; what I was thinking of was, that Hugh always knows just
what to say about everything and everybody. He has the whole Golden
Treasury in his head, and he always turns the right page. Do you
remember the other day, when Michael was so stupid!"

"Michael is always stupid!" said Jean.

"Poor Michael! He is not very clever." (Michael was the stable-boy at
Fernley, a new importation from Ireland, with a good deal of peat-bog
still sticking to his brains.) "Well, the other day he was more stupid
than usual, for he was sent in town to get some rolled oats that
Frances wanted. Well, he brought back just plain oats; and when Frances
wanted to know what he meant by that, he said, 'Sure, it's meself can
rowl 'em about for yez, as well as that feller in the white jacket.'
Frances explained the situation to him with more force than amiability.
She was in a perfect storm, and poor Michael stood meekly, feeling of
his ear as if she had actually boxed it, though really she only
threatened to, and wondering what it was all about. Well, Hugh and I
came along, and Hugh just looked at him, and said:

"'The ass upon the pivot of his skull
Turned round a long left ear!'

There is no other quotation in the English language that would have
fitted the case so perfectly."

"You and Grace seem to know Hugh about a hundred times as well as Peggy
and I do," said Jean, pouting a little.

"Because they are clever, my dear, and we are not," said Peggy,
cheerfully. "If you would learn things, Jean, English literature and
all that, you might be able to talk to Hugh. As it is--"

"Well, I think Phil and Gerald are ever so much more fun, anyhow!" said
Jean, saucily. "Hugh is poky!"

Seeing an elder-sisterly cloud gathering on Peggy's brow, Margaret
hastened to interfere. "Girls," she said, "I have a confession to make.
I was just going to make it, when the quotations turned me off the
track. You know what Peggy was saying, about our all getting to know
each other so well from staying in the house together. That reminded me
of something, something I am very much ashamed of; and I think it would
be good for my soul to confess it. But you must promise never to tell."

"We promise! We promise!" cried all the girls.

"Margaret," said Grace, "I have been looking for your sins