ne of voice.

"'Taint _your_ house. It's your father's. He!" said the ugly boy, grinning
at his young hostess.

"Well, if you were not Jessie's cousins, you should never step inside of
my house again--but here comes my brother. He'll _make_ you let me
slide."

Walter Sherwood now came up to the spot where his sister and Jessie stood.
Carrie told him the story of the selfishness of the two cousins, and ended
by saying:

"Won't you compel them to let us slide too, Walter?"

"If he touches me, I'll throw this big stone at him," growled Charlie,
looking very ugly and holding up a large stone, which he had just taken up
from the side of the ditch. Wasn't he a selfish little fellow?

"Please don't touch him," entreated Jessie. "I don't care much about
sliding, and Carrie won't mind waiting until to-morrow. Will you, Carrie
dear. The weather is so cold, there will soon be plenty of ice. Please
don't hurt Charlie, Walter."

"Don't be alarmed, my sweet Jessie," replied Walter, laughing. "I don't
want to touch your sting-nettle of a cousin. I'd about as lief grapple a
hedgehog. Let him and his selfish sister have their slides all to
themselves. You come with me. I know where there is far better sliding
than this, and I came on purpose to tell you so. Come, let us go, and
leave them to enjoy their slides, if such selfish creatures can enjoy any
thing."

"Please Walter, let my cousins go with us," whispered Jessie in Walter's
ear, as he took her hand.

"No, no, Jessie, I can't consent to that. They won't be a whit happier
there than here, and if we do take them with us, they will only spoil our
fun. I never saw two such thorns in my life. You can't go near them, but
they scratch you right off."

"They are going home, the day after to-morrow, and I'm glad of it," cried
Carrie, as she stepped up the bank after her brother and Jessie.

"So am I," said Walter, "and I'm thinking there will be plenty of dry eyes
at Glen Morris Cottage, when they go away. What do you say to that,
Jessie?"

"I'm sorry my cousins are so selfish," replied Jessie, "but Charlie is the
worst. I think if Emily was here without him, she would soon be a good
girl."

"Perhaps so. Yet I'm inclined to think you'll see apples growing on that
old hickory yonder, before she becomes _good_, as you call it. But let us
hurry into the pasture. Here, Jessie, mount these bars?"

As he spoke, Walter leaped over the rail-fence of a pasture, and giving
his han