d apparently
trying to make up his mind whether his interference was necessary or
not. A low growl showed that he was evidently deciding the matter,
when Henry desisted, and walked leisurely off.

Erelong, however, he returned, and called out, "See, girls, I've got
an elegant necklace for you."

Looking up, they saw him advancing towards them, with a small water
snake, which he held in his hand; and, readily divining his purpose,
they started and ran, while he pursued them, threatening to wind the
snake around the neck of the first one he caught. Jenny, who was too
chubby to be very swift-footed, took refuge behind a clump of alder
bushes but Mary kept on, and just as she reached a point where the
brook turned, Henry overtook her, and would perhaps have carried his
threat into execution, had not help arrived from an unexpected
quarter. Tasso, who had watched, and felt sure that this time all was
not right, suddenly pounced upon Henry, throwing him down, and then
planting himself upon his prostrate form, in such a manner that he
dared not move.

"Oh, good, good," said Jenny, coming out from her concealment; "make
Tasso keep him there ever so long; and," she continued, patting the
dog, "if you won't hurt him much, you may shake him just a little."

"No, no," said Henry, writhing with fear, "call him off, do call him
off. Oh, mercy!" he added, as Tasso, who did not particularly care to
have the case reasoned, showed two rows of very white teeth.

Mary could not help laughing at the figure which Henry cut; but
thinking him sufficiently punished, she called off the dog, who obeyed
rather unwillingly, and ever after manifested his dislike to Henry by
growling angrily whenever he appeared.

One morning about two weeks afterwards, Mary was in the meadow
gathering cowslips for dinner, when she heard some one calling her
name; and looking up, she saw Jenny hurrying towards her, her
sun-bonnet hanging down her back as usual, and her cheeks flushed with
violent exercise. As soon as she came up, she began with, "Oh my,
ain't I hot and tired, and I can't stay a minute either, for I run
away. But I had such good news to tell you, that I would come. You are
going to have a great deal better home than this. You know where Rice
Corner is, the district over east?"

Mary replied that she did, and Jenny continued: "We all went over
there yesterday to see Mrs. Mason. She's a real nice lady, who used to
live in Boston, and be intimat