fat legs." She clapped her hands with admiration.
"Now I shall do something else," she announced as she finished the pig
with a round red pebble stuck in for the eye. "Let me see. What shall
I draw? Oh, I know! A picture of Gran'ther Wattles! Look, Dan." She
made a careful stroke. "Here 's his nose, and here 's his chin. They are
monstrous near together because he has nothing but gums between! And
here 's his long tithing-stick with the squirrel-tail on the end!"

[Illustration]

"It doth bear a likeness to him!" admitted Dan, laughing in spite of
himself, "but, sister, thou shouldst not mock him. He is an old man,
and we should pay respect to gray hairs. Father says so."

"Truly I have as much of respect as he hath of hair," answered naughty
Nancy. "His poll is nearly as bald as an egg."

"I know the cause of thy displeasure," declared Dan. "Gran'ther
Wattles poked thee for bouncing about during the sermon last Sunday.
But it is unseemly to bounce in the meeting-house, and besides, is he
not the tithing-man? 'T is his duty to see that people behave as they
should."

"He would mayhap have bounced himself if a bee had been buzzing about
his nose as it did about mine," said Nancy, and, giving a vicious
dab at the pictured features, she drew a bee perched on the end of
Gran'ther Wattles's nose. "Here now are all the gray hairs he hath,"
she added, making three little scratches above the ear.

"Nancy Pepperell!" cried her brother, aghast, "dost thou not remember
what happened to the forty and two children that said 'Go up, thou
bald head' to Elijah? It would be no marvel if bears were to come out
of the woods this moment to eat thee up!"

[Illustration]

"'T was n't Elijah, 't was Elisha," Nancy retorted with spirit, "but it
matters little whether 't was one or t' other, for I don't believe two
bears could possibly hold so much, and besides dost thou not think it
a deal worse to cause a bear to eat up forty and two children than to
say 'Go up, thou bald head'?"

"Nancy!" exclaimed her horrified brother, glancing fearfully toward
the forest and clapping his hand on her mouth to prevent further
impiety, "thou art a wicked, wicked girl! Dost thou not know that the
eye of the Lord is in every place? Without doubt his ear is too, and
He can hear every word thy saucy tongue sayeth. Come, let us rub out
this naughty picture quickly, and mayhap God will take no notice this
time." He ran across Gran'ther Wattles's portrai