an, she uttered a series of
cries, indicative both of alarm and displeasure.

"What--what--what is the matter?" said Mr. Bachelor, who had probably
forgotten his offense by this time.

"You naughty papa!" cried the child; "what did you disturve my dollies
for?"

"What did you put them on my desk for?" queried her father indignantly;
"the idea! I haven't a spot on earth I can call my own."

"You've just mussed their best frocks all up," continued the child, who,
without paying the slightest attention to her father's vigorous protest,
was rapidly replacing her family, puppies, kittens, and all, on the
desk.

"I tell you I can't have them here! I have important papers around, and
I must be allowed to work in peace. Take them off!"

He started to sweep them on to the floor, but the little girl uttered a
shriek.

"Papa, papa, don't," she screamed. Then, as he desisted, she added,
"They've just _dot_ to be here--it's the bestest, highest table, and the
little doggies and kitties can't jump off, and I'm doing to have a
tea-party with Mamie Williams. You must put your nasty old papers
somewhere else."

"This is an outrage!" he exclaimed, standing up and declaiming as if he
were in court; "this is imposition run riot; it has reached a climax,
and I'll endure it no longer. Evidently I have no rights that even the
smallest and youngest in the household is bound to respect. It is a
notorious fact that I am ruled with a rod of iron, and that even this
baby of the family flouts me. I say I will stand it no longer. I have
been held with a tight rein, and a curb bit, but I will turn at last."

In his excitement, his metaphors became confused, horses and worms
being all mixed up in a heap.

"Take the desk, take the whole of it, and to-morrow I shall leave the
house! I shall go back to my bachelor quarters, where I once lived in
peace."

The child regarded him seriously, from out her great, brown eyes.

"Don't go away, papa," she said at last, "you may have a little of your
desk, if you won't take too much. I didn't mean to be cross at you," she
added, with a pathetic quiver of her lip.

"Well, well!" exclaimed the father hastily, "there, there!" and he laid
his hand softly on her curly little head, "I guess we'll get on somehow;
if I can have a part of the desk, that'll answer. It's big enough for
two, I guess."

And he began moving his papers around.

"Not there, papa," said the little tyrant; "no, that's the sunny