help it."

"I'll forgive you, Philip, if you'll forget this whole occurrence."

"Forget it? Why, Patty, what do you mean? I never forget it for a
single moment! I was sitting there to-night, dreaming of _you_. I
wasn't asleep, you know, I was just thinking about you, and wondering
how soon I might tell you my thoughts. You're so young, dear,--I'm
half a dozen years older than you are,--but I want you, my little
Patty. Mayn't I hope?"

"You're quite right, Philip. I _am_ too young to think of such things.
So cut it out for a couple of years, and then I'll see about it!"

"Patty, you rogue, how _can_ you speak like that? Don't you love me a
least little bit?"

"Not a teenty weenty speck! And if you don't give me something to eat,
I won't even _like_ you."

"Well, here's a bargain, then,--if I find something nice for you to
eat, will you like me a whole lot?"

"I do like you a whole lot, anyway; but I don't love you and I'm not
going to love _anybody_, _ever_! I do think being grown-up is a
regular nuisance, and I wish I was a little girl again, with my hair
down my back!"

"Incidentally, your hair _is_ down your back."

"Well, I don't care," and Patty shook her curly mane. "I wear it that
way in tableaux and things, so what's the difference?"

"There _isn't_ any difference. We'll pretend you're a tableau."

"All right, I'll be Patience on a Monument, waiting for some supper."

"That was Little Tommy Tucker."

"No; _he_ sang for his supper. I'm not going to sing."

"For Heaven's sake, _don't_! Your top notes would bring the whole
crowd down here! Patty, if you'll promise to love me _some time_, I'll
stop teasing you _now_."

"Oh, Philip, I'd do 'most anything to have you stop teasing me now!
But how _can_ I tell who I'm going to love when I get old enough to
love anybody?"

"Well, you don't love anybody yet, do you?"

"I do _not_!" and Patty shook her head with great emphasis.

"Then I have a fair show, anyway." And Philip drew the curtain that
shut out the moonlight, and switched on the electric light.

"Exit Romance!" he said, "and enter Comedy! Now, Patty, you're my
little playmate; we're just two kiddies in the pantry, stealing
jam,--that is, if we can find any jam."

"The pantry's the place," said Patty; "there's nothing in the
sideboard but biscuit and raisins."

"They don't sound very good to me. To the pantry!"

Into the pantries they went, and there, in cupboards and iceboxes,
found al