felt reckless that day, and when I heard Aunt
Rebecca walking to and fro, just above my head, I didn't scamper off as
I ordinarily would have done; I just sat still and said to myself, 'I
don't care! I don't care!' It seemed to give me a lot of courage, and
I wasn't a bit afraid, even when Aunt Rebecca's footsteps came nearer,
and I knew she could see me from the top of the stairs. Indeed, I grew
mightily brave; so brave, that after a couple of minutes I raised my
voice and piped out: 'Aunt Becca! Aunt Becca!'

"'Well,' answered she, 'what is it? what do you want?'

"Even the severity of her voice didn't dismay me that rash morning.

"'I want Lilly,' said I, airily. Lilly was my precious doll. 'She's
in her little chair in my room; won't you please to pitch me Lilly?'

"For a moment Aunt Rebecca hesitated. I think she must have been
petrified by my audacity. But she recovered herself and turned, and
without a word went to my room and got Lilly from her 'little chair.'
I was as complacent as if it had been quite the usual thing for Aunt
Rebecca to fetch and carry for me. Indeed, perhaps I imagined I was
instituting a new order of things, and that in future she would do my
errands, instead of I hers.

"She came back to the head of the stairway and I looked up pleasantly,
half-expecting, I suppose, that she would come down and deliver my
darling dolly safely into my hands. But she didn't. If I were giving
orders she would obey me to the letter. She 'pitched me Lilly.' I
gave a dismal wail of dismay as I saw my dear baby come hurtling
through the air, but when she landed on her blessed head, and I heard
the crack of breaking china, I just abandoned myself to grief and
howled desperately. Aunt Rebecca went about her business as if nothing
had happened, and by and by I stole off with my ruined dolly and cried
to myself in the back yard--because I had no one else to cry to."

"You poor little thing!" burst out Nan, indignantly. "What a
detestable woman! As if she could have expected such a baby to know!"

"You're wrong, Nan!" the governess said. "It was a wholesome lesson,
and I am grateful to Aunt Rebecca for having given it to me."

"Well, I shouldn't think you would be," insisted the girl rebelliously.
"The idea of her expecting such a mite to understand!"

"Ah, but you see I did understand. And I have never forgotten it. I
have never asked any one to 'pitch me Lilly' since that day--I mean
neve