hing houses in the world, and one of these days I shall astonish
mankind. But come, we must hasten on, or the gormandizers will eat up
those custard pies which I found in the cellar with the brass-kettle
covered over them."

Accordingly they started for home, but found, as Sal had predicted,
that supper was over and the pies all gone. By a little dexterous
management, however, she managed to find half of one, which Miss
Grundy had tucked away under an empty candle-box for her own future
eating.

CHAPTER IX.

THE NEW BONNET.

The next morning, for a wonder. Jenny Lincoln was up before the sun,
and in the large dark closet which adjoined her sleeping room, she
rummaged through band-boxes and on the top shelves until she found and
brought to light a straw hat, which was new the fall before, but which
her mother had decided unfit to appear again in the city. Jenny had
heard the unkind remarks which Mary's odd-looking bonnet elicited, and
she now determined to give her this one, though she did not dare to do
so without her mother's consent. So after breakfast, when her mother
was seated at her work in the parlor, Jenny drew near, making known
her request, and asking permission to carry the bonnet to Mary
herself.

"Mercy on me!" said Mrs. Lincoln, "what won't you think of next, and
where did you get such vulgar taste. It must have been from your
father, for I am sure you never took it from me. I dare say, now, you
had rather play with that town pauper than with the richest child in
Boston."

For a moment Jenny was silent, and then as a new idea came into her
head, she said, "Ma, if you should die, and pa should die, and every
body should die, and we hadn't any money, wouldn't I have to be a town
pauper?"

"What absurd questions you ask," said Mrs. Lincoln, overturning a
work-box to find a spool of cotton, which lay directly on top. "Do
what you please with the bonnet, which I fancy you'll find as much
too small for Mary as the one she now has is too large."

Jenny felt fearful of this, but "where there's a will there's a way;"
and after considering a moment, she went in quest of her sister, who
had one just like it. Rose did not care a fig for the bonnet, and
after a while she agreed to part with it on condition that Jenny would
give her a coral bracelet, with gold clasps, which she had long
coveted. This fanciful little ornament was a birth-day present from
Billy and at first Jenny thought that nothing w