l merely say, that, as a
matter of public safety, you'd better leave me alone; for such is the
destructiveness of my nature, that I shall certainly eat something
hurtful, break something valuable, or sit upon something crushable,
unless you let me concentrate my energies by knocking on these young
fellows' hats, and preparing them for their doom."

Looking at the matter in a charitable light, Nan consented, and went
cheerfully on with her work, wondering how she could have thought
ironing an infliction, and been so ungrateful for the blessings of her
lot.

"Where's Sally?" asked John, looking vainly for the functionary who
usually pervaded that region like a domestic police-woman, a terror to
cats, dogs, and men.

"She has gone to her cousin's funeral, and won't be back till Monday.
There seems to be a great fatality among her relations; for one dies,
or comes to grief in some way, about once a month. But I don't blame
poor Sally for wanting to get away from this place now and then. I
think I could find it in my heart to murder an imaginary friend or two,
if I had to stay here long."

And Nan laughed so blithely, it was a pleasure to hear her.

"Where's Di?" asked John, seized with a most unmasculine curiosity all
at once.

"She is in Germany with 'Wilhelm Meister'; but, though 'lost to sight,
to memory clear'; for I was just thinking, as I did her things, how
clever she is to like all kinds of books that I don't understand at
all, and to write things that make me cry with pride and delight. Yes,
she's a talented dear, though she hardly knows a needle from a crowbar,
and will make herself one great blot some of these days, when the
'divine afflatus' descends upon her, I'm afraid."

And Nan rubbed away with sisterly zeal at Di's forlorn hose and inky
pocket-handkerchiefs.

"Where is Laura?" proceeded the inquisitor.

"Well, I might say that she was in Italy; for she is copying some fine
thing of Raphael's or Michael Angelo's, or some great creatures or
other; and she looks so picturesque in her pretty gown, sitting before
her easel, that it's really a sight to behold, and I've peeped two or
three times to see how she gets on."

And Nan bestirred herself to prepare the dish Wherewith her picturesque
sister desired to prolong her artistic existence.

"Where is your father?" John asked again, checking off each answer with
a nod and a little frown.

"He is down in the garden, deep in some plan about melons,