er ears more 'n half the time.

"One mornin' everything went wrong with Dinah. Her gran'mam was plum
mis'able over her shif'less ways, an' she set her to sew a seam befo' she
could step outside the do'. The needle was dull, the thread fell in knots.
Dinah's brow was mo' knotted up than the thread. Her head felt hot.

"'Say you won't do it,' hissed the voice.

"'I'll git thrashed if I do. Gran'mam said so.'

"'What do you care!' hissed the voice; and jest as the fairy Slap-back was
talkin' like this, up comes little Mose to Dinah, an' laughs an' pulls her
work away.

"Then somethin' awful happened. Dinah couldn't 'a' done it two weeks back;
but it's the way with them that listens to that mis'able, low-lifed
Slap-back. Jest as quick as a wink, that big gal, goin' on nine, slapped
baby Mose. He was that took back for a minute that he didn't cry; but the
hateful voice laughed an' hissed an' laughed again.

"Good, Dinah, good! Now you'll ketch it!'

"Then over went little Mose's lip, an' he wailed out, an' Dinah clasped her
naughty hands an' saw a face close to her--a bad one, with red eyes
shinin'. She jumped away from it, for it made her cold to think she'd been
havin' sech a playfeller all along.

"'Oh, Love, y' ain't done fergit me, is yer? Come back, Love, _Love_!' she
called; then she dropped on her knees side o' Mose an' called him her honey
an' her lamb, an' she cried with him, an' pulled him into her lap, an' when
the ole gran'mam come in from where she'd been feedin' the hens, they was
both asleep."

Franz took a long breath, for the way the apple woman told a story always
made him listen hard. "I guess that was the last of old Slap-back with
Dinah," he remarked.

The apple woman shook her head. "That's the worst of that fairy," she said.
"Love'll clar out when you tell 'er to, 'case she's quality, an' she's got
manners; but Slap-back ain't never had no raisin'. She hangs around, an'
hangs around, an' is allers puttin' in her say jest as she was a few
minutes ago with you and Emilie in the road there. There's nothin' in this
world tickles her like a chile actin' naughty, 'ceptin' it's two chillen
scrappin'. Now pore little Dinah found she had to have all her wits about
her to keep Love near, an' make that ornery Slap-back stay away. Love was
as willin', as willin' to stay as violets is to open in the springtime;
but when Dinah an' Slap-back was both agin her, what could she do? An'
Dinah, she'd got so us