was goin' to be three balls, and Cindrilla didn't have no
mother, and her father didn't have no wife, so he married him one. And
there was goin' to be three great big balls, and Cindrilla asked her
mother if she couldn't go, and her mother said, No, indeed; she hadn't
nothin' to wear. And then they started off, and her grandma came,--O,
I forgot, the woman was wicked, and she made her little girls sit in
the parlor, all dressed up spandy clean, and she made Cindrilla sit in
the coal-hod."

"And then she told her to get a great punkin, and it turned into a
gold hack, and she went off into the back shed and got the rat-trap,
and it turned into two footmens,--and the king's son--O, no----"

"And then there was some bugs round there, and they was six horses,
and she got in and rode on to the ball, and her shoes come off, and
then the king married her, and she had the other shoe in her pocket,
and he married her right off, and they're all safe now."

"All safe?" said aunt Madge, laughing; "what do you mean by that?"

"O, now she'll have a good father and a good mother, and won't sit in
the coal-hod no more.--Now it's your turn, Susy."

"O dear suz! I was going to tell a story, a fairy story. It was going
to be a real good one, about 'The Bravest of Lion's Castle,' and I
couldn't think of a thing to say, and now Prudy has drove it all out
of my head."

"Well, children," said aunt Madge, "suppose we give Susy a little more
time, and excuse her for to-night? It's time for pleasant dreams now,
and kisses all 'round."

CHAPTER XI

PRUDY'S WHITE TEA

"Blessings on the blessed children!" said aunt Madge, one morning soon
after this. "So we little folks are going out to spend the day, are
we?"

"Yes'm," replied Grace, "all but Horace."

"Yes," said Prudy, dancing in high glee, "grandma wants _me_ to go,
and I'm goin'. I mean to do every single thing grandma wants me to."

"I wish you could go with us, aunt Madge," said Grace, almost pouting;
"we don't have half so good times with aunt Louise."

"No, we don't," cried Prudy; "she wants us to 'take care' all the
time. She don't love little girls when she has 'the nervous.'"

Almost while they were talking, their aunt Louise came into the room,
looking prettier than ever in her new pink dress. She was a very young
lady, hardly fifteen years old.

"Come, Prudy," said she, smiling, "please run up stairs and get my
parasol--there's a darling."

But Prudy was pi