aid Floretta, "but why
don't you sit down, and rest a while before you go back?"

It sounded kind, and Arabella at once seated herself, while Floretta sat
near her.

She thought it would be great fun to question this odd child, and there
was no one near to check her.

"Aren't you nearly roasted in that raincoat?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not chilly," said Arabella, fixing her sharp eyes upon the
other little girl.

"Did you think it was going to rain?" was the next question. "You've
rubbers, and umbrella."

Floretta barely managed to hide the fact that she wanted to laugh. Her
question seemed so absurd with the blue sky overhead, and the sunshine
everywhere.

"I didn't want to wear them," said Arabella, "and I told Aunt Matilda it
was too pleasant to rain, but she said you never could tell, and she
said, too, that I could wear them, or stay at home, so what could I do?"

"_I'd_ have stayed at home," said Floretta, bluntly. "I wouldn't wear
raincoat and rubbers, and lug an umbrella for any Aunt Matilda or Aunt
Jemima!"

"Who is Aunt Jemima?" Arabella asked, stupidly.

"I don't know," said Floretta, sharply, "but then, I don't know your
Aunt Matilda."

She longed to say that she did not want to, but for once she did not
quite dare to say what she thought.

Then there was an awkward pause. Floretta could not think what to say
next, while Arabella did not try.

Silence never made her uneasy. She could stare at any one who sat
opposite her, for a half-hour, without so much as winking, and it rather
amused her if the other person became nervous, and wriggled uneasily
beneath her persistent stare. At last Floretta spoke.

"You might take some of those things off," she said; "you won't need
them while you stay."

"Aunt Matilda told me not to," said Arabella, "and if I _did_, it would
be just my luck to have her come right by here, and see me with them
off. My! _Wouldn't_ she be angry?"

Arabella's eyes dilated as she asked the question.

"Does your Aunt Matilda poke 'round after you like that?" asked
Floretta.

"She doesn't ever _seem_ to follow me, but all the same, she's always
catching me doing something."

"Then you _do_ risk doing what she tells you not to," said Floretta,
with a saucy laugh.

"Look here!" cried Arabella, "I don't know you, but I'm going to tell
you something. I can't do one single thing I want to, neither can my
papa or mamma. Aunt Matilda is little, and my papa is big. He says h