milkman, the fishwoman, and
the sweep as from Lady Benyon or Count Bartahlinsky; and very early
thought it contemptible to jeer at people for want of means and defects
of education. She never talked of the "common people," after she found
that Harriet was hurt by the phrase; and she would have been on good
terms with all the street children had it not been for what Mrs.
Caldwell called "Bernadine's superior self-respect." Bernadine told if
Beth spoke to one of them, and as Beth had no friends amongst them as
yet, she did not feel that their acquaintance was worth fighting for.
But the street children resented the attitude of the two shabby little
ladies, and were always watching for opportunities to annoy them.
Accordingly, when Bernadine tumbled off the chain head-over-heels
backwards, there was a howl of derision. "Oh my! Ain't she getten thin
legs!" "Ah say, Julia, did you see that big 'ole i' her stockin'?" "Naw,
but ah seed the patch on 'er petticoat!" "Eh--an' she's on'y getten one
on, an' it isn't flannel." "An' them's ladies!"

Bernadine's pride came to her rescue on these occasions. At home she
howled when she was hurt, but now she affected to laugh, and both
sisters strolled off with their little heads up, and an exasperating
air of indifference to the enemy. The tide was out, and they went down
into the harbour and found a large oyster among the piles of the
wooden jetty. When they got home, the difficulty was how to open it;
but they managed to make it open itself by holding it over the kitchen
fire on the shovel. When it began to lift its lid, Beth sent Bernadine
for a fork, and while she was getting it Beth ate the oyster. But
Bernadine could not see the joke, and her rage was not to be appeased
even by the oyster-shell, which Beth said she might have the whole of.

The battle came off after dinner that evening. But it was a day of
disaster. Harriet was out of temper; and Mrs. Caldwell appeared
mysteriously, just as Beth knocked Bernadine down and sat on her
stomach.

* * * * *

They were reading a story of French life at that time, and something
came into it about snail-broth as a cure for consumption, and
snail-oil as a remedy for rheumatism. The next day there was a most
extraordinary smell all over the house. Mrs. Caldwell, Aunt Victoria,
Harriet, and Bernadine went sniffing about, but could find nothing to
account for it. Beth sat at the dining-table with a book bef