y
one of cousin Lydia's many questions like a little lady.

I had no appetite, and could hardly have told what my name was if any
one had asked me.

But from that time my homesickness was gone. I took my little friend
all about the farm, which was a very nice place, only I had never
thought of it before, and showed her the speckled bossy, which seemed
to have grown handsomer all in one night.

"Here are some black currants, Fel; do you like 'em?"

"O, yes."

"Why, I don't; I just despise 'em."

"Well, I don't like 'em _very_ well," said Fel; for after our long
separation she could not bear to disagree with me in anything.

"Cousin Lydia," said I, very soon after Fel came, "may we tell scare
stories after we go to bed? She wants us to."

Cousin Lydia did not know what I meant by "scare stories."

"It's all the awful things we can think of," said I, eagerly. "And we
like to, for we want to see 'f our hair 'll stand out straight."

Cousin Lydia laughed, and said "children were perfect curiosities."

"It makes us shiver all over. It's splendid," said I.

"Well, you may try it this once," said cousin Lydia, "if you'll stop
talking the moment I tap on the wall."

So, as soon as we got into bed we began. "You tell first," said
Ruphelle; "you can tell the orfulest, and then I'll tell."

"Mine'll be about the Big Giant," said I, clearing my throat.

_The Big Giant._

"Once upon a time he had three heads, and he roared so you could hear
him a mile."

"That isn't anything," said Fel; "my hair don't stand out a bit."

"Why, I hadn't but just begun. You wait and see what comes next. Did
I say the Big Giant had three heads? He had sixteen. And every one of
'em had three mouths, and some had ten; and they made a noise when he
chewed grass like----like thunder."

"It don't scare me a bit," said Fel, stoutly.

"Did I say the Big Giant ate grass? He ate _fire_; he ate live coals,
the _liver_ the better."

"I should have thought 'twould have burnt him all up," said Fel.

"There, miss, you needn't pretend not to be scared! I'm so scared
myself I can't but just tell!--No, it didn't burn him up; it came out
at his great big nose. And when the Big Giant walked along the streets
folks ran away, for he blazed so. And there wasn't enough water in
Willowbrook to put him out!"

"He didn't live at Willowbrook?"

"O, yes, right between your house and my house; _and lives there
now_!"

By that time Fel began to trem