"What are you doing here I should like to know?" she demanded.

"We aren't doing any harm, Aunt Marcia," her nephew answered stoutly.

"An alley is no place to play in. Is that Louise?" as somebody peeped
out of the stable door. "I am astonished; you must go in at once."

"I am going in directly, I am, indeed, Aunt Marcia; but please don't
make the boys get up till they are sure it is quite dead." As she
spoke Louise came out into full view.

"What are you talking about, and who is this boy?" Mrs. Hazeltine put
up her glass, embarrassing Ikey greatly. "Oh, it is that Ford boy!
Now tell me what you have in that box."

"A cat." Carl's eyes were full of mischief, though his tone was
solemnity itself.

"Mercy upon us! Let it out at once!"

"We can't; it is dead."

"Dead? You wicked boys! Did you kill it?"

"Oh, Aunt Marcia," cried Louise before Carl could reply, "they had to
do it, indeed, _indeed_ they did! It was hurt; some boys shot it with
a toy pistol, and it was dreadful; so we bought some chloroform and
Ikey killed it because he knew how, and now they are sitting on the
box to make sure!"

Horrified and astonished, Mrs. Hazeltine surveyed her young relatives
in silence.

"Why couldn't you have James do it?" she inquired at length.

"He has taken the horses to be shod."

"Where is Zelie?"

"Gone to Chicago with Cousin Helen."

"Well, Louise must go in at once, and may I inquire how long it will
be necessary for you to sit on that box in this damp place?"

"It must be dead now, I think," Ikey said, rising.

Carl was proceeding to make an investigation, when Aunt Marcia
protested, "Wait till I'm gone, if you _please_; _I_ don't care to
have anything to do with such business," and drawing her skirts about
her, she hastily retired.

"There never were such children!" she said to her husband that night.
"Think of it--actually killing a cat--and Louise helping!"

"Don't you think it was better than letting the poor thing suffer?"
asked tender-hearted Uncle William.

"I don't care, Carl, you needn't laugh," said Louise that same
evening; "for cats _are_ neighbors, father says so. Anything or
anybody you can help, he said."

"All right, I'll tell Ikey to report it at the G.N. meeting."

"Oh, ho, Mr. Carl! Is that what you are going to do at your club?"
cried both his sisters in the same breath.

"Pooh! that is nothing," said Carl, affecting great unconcern, but
secretly very much provoked with hi