ge even in one
of the weaker sex.

More nettled than she was, Stuffy determined to get a cry out of her
somehow, and he said tauntingly, "You are used to poking your hands into
every thing, so that isn't fair. Now go and bump your head real hard
against the barn, and see if you don't howl then."

"Don't do it," said Nat, who hated cruelty.

But Nan was off, and running straight at the barn, she gave her head a
blow that knocked her flat, and sounded like a battering-ram. Dizzy, but
undaunted, she staggered up, saying stoutly, though her face was drawn
with pain,

"That hurt, but I don't cry."

"Do it again," said Stuffy angrily; and Nan would have done it, but Nat
held her; and Tommy, forgetting the heat, flew at Stuffy like a little
game-cock, roaring out,

"Stop it, or I'll throw you over the barn!" and so shook and hustled
poor Stuffy that for a minute he did not know whether he was on his head
or his heels.

"She told me to," was all he could say, when Tommy let him alone.

"Never mind if she did; it is awfully mean to hurt a little girl," said
Demi, reproachfully.

"Ho! I don't mind; I ain't a little girl, I'm older than you and Daisy;
so now," cried Nan, ungratefully.

"Don't preach, Deacon, you bully Posy every day of your life," called
out the Commodore, who just then hove in sight.

"I don't hurt her; do I, Daisy?" and Demi turned to his sister, who was
"pooring" Nan's tingling hands, and recommending water for the purple
lump rapidly developing itself on her forehead.

"You are the best boy in the world," promptly answered Daisy; adding,
as truth compelled her to do, "You hurt me sometimes, but you don't mean
to."

"Put away the bats and things, and mind what you are about, my hearties.
No fighting allowed aboard this ship," said Emil, who rather lorded it
over the others.

"How do you do, Madge Wildfire?" said Mr. Bhaer, as Nan came in with
the rest to supper. "Give the right hand, little daughter, and mind thy
manners," he added, as Nan offered him her left.

"The other hurts me."

"The poor little hand! what has it been doing to get those blisters?" he
asked, drawing it from behind her back, where she had put it with a look
which made him think she had been in mischief.

Before Nan could think of any excuse, Daisy burst out with the whole
story, during which Stuffy tried to hide his face in a bowl of bread and
milk. When the tale was finished, Mr. Bhaer looked down the long table
tow