said, putting her hands on my
shoulders, and playfully shaking me, "coming here and practising with
cousin Serena, forsooth; and the rest of us experimenting with our
first efforts. O Amy, Amy, I would not have believed it of you. And the
gods themselves turned against you. Their mills did grind exceeding
sure that time, and not so slowly, either; vengeance followed, swift
and sure. You deserve this. Cheating play never prospers, Amy; and
'honesty is the best policy,' and all that."

Meanwhile, the children were gazing from one to another of their
elders, not knowing what to make of all this,--Allie uncertain whether
or no she had better call upon her ever ready tears, Daisy bewildered,
and at a loss to know upon whom to bestow her sympathy, cousin Serena
or me; for I had not yet put my miserable imaginings into words, and my
startled looks alone appealed to her; while Miss Craven was in a
half-frantic state of excitement; and, as for Bessie, she had at first
appeared furiously angry, and now, with a sudden change, was turning
the whole thing into a laugh. What could it all be about? wondered
these innocents.

"Oh," I gasped at last, "what shall we do? What will papa say? What
will uncle Rutherford say? What will Edward say? What will----"

"Yes, my dear, what will Fred say?" Bessie completed my unfinished
sentence, as I paused, overwhelmed. "They will each and every man of
them settle this matter, to the anguish of that editor, if I know them,
and without one word of trouble or publicity to you, or any one of the
family. You dear goose, you, to make such a personal matter of it. Why
not, Jim; why not still more, Mary Jane?"

"I must go home," I said, feeling a burning desire to find at once my
natural protectors, and to place the matter in their hands; and go I
would and did, cousin Serena accompanying me, with Bessie and the
children. We paused by the way, to knock at Mrs. Dutton's door, and to
ask her if she had called the attention of any of the other boarders to
that shameful paragraph.

Mrs. Dutton, motherly, gentle, refined, a lady in birth, education, and
manner, and with a warm corner in her heart for the girls, big and
little, who ran in and out on their visits to Miss Craven, assured us
that she had not done so; and, in answer to my anxious inquiries, said,
also, that she had never mentioned the incident of the "food for the
gods" to any one.

It is not necessary to state, that my mankind were incensed