e any more; but what of that? She's done
that already. I will have my fun; you will have your punishment. That's
fair enough, isn't it? You don't desert Nancy King for nothing, remember
that, Pauline, so you had better say at once that you will come. Now, my
love, I think that is about all."

Nancy's face was very red. She was feeling thoroughly angry. Pauline's
manner annoyed her past description. She really imagined herself to be
extremely kind and good-natured to Pauline, and could not endure the
little girl taking her present high stand.

"I must be going now," she said.

She gave Pauline a nod which was scarcely friendly, but was, at the same
time, very determined, and was about to run home, when Pauline called
her.

"Don't go for a minute, Nancy. There's something else. Have you brought
me back Aunt Sophia's thimble?"

"No, I have not. I have a story to tell you about that, and I was just
forgetting it. I do hope and trust you won't really mind."

"Oh, what is it? You know I am quite likely to get into a scrape about
that horrid thimble as well as everything else. What is the story? The
thimble isn't yours. You surely haven't lost it!"

"Nothing of the kind. You look as though you thought I had stolen it.
Mean as I am, I am not quite so bad as that. Now let me tell you. Becky,
poor old girl! saw it. She's always mad about finery of any sort, and her
people are rich as rich. I had the thimble in my pocket, and she was
snuggling up close to me in her nice, engaging little fashion, and she
felt the thimble hard against my side, much as I felt it when it was in
your pocket. In she slipped her little bit of a white hand and drew it
out. I never saw any one so delighted over a toy of the sort in all my
life. It fitted her little finger just to a nicety.

"'Why,' she exclaimed, 'I never, never saw a thimble like this before;
did you, Nancy?'

"'Guess not,' I answered. 'It's a cunning one, isn't it?'

"She kept turning it round and round, and looking at it, and pressing it
up to her cheek, and trying to see her own reflection in that wonderful
sapphire at the bottom of the thimble. Then what do you think happened? I
own it was a little sharp of her, but of course you can't be so
unfriendly as to mind. She took the precious little toy and put it into a
dear, most precious little box, and covered it over with soft, soft
cotton-wool, and placed a sweet little lid on the top. Dear me, Pauline!
you needn't open you