f!"

"No. You are right," said Mr. Lockwood. "The comparison is just. You
would _not_ do well in an airship, Dora."

"Huh! I should think not! And you're as little fit to bring up two
girls--and twins, at that!"

"But--but I don't really bring them up," said Mr. Lockwood,
apologetically. "Mrs. Betsey does that."

"Mrs. Betsey!" with a sniff.

"And really, they get along very well, Sister."

"They get along well because they are no trouble to you."

"Well, isn't that as it should be? They are good girls--and loving
girls."

"I declare to man! Lemuel Lockwood, you haven't any more idea of what
those girls need than a babe unborn."

"What _do_ they need, Dora?" asked worried Mr. Lockwood.

"They need a strong hand--a stern and uncompromising spirit to govern
them--that's what they need!" declared the militant aunt.

"But Dora, they are good girls and make me no trouble at all."

"Of course they make you no trouble. You let them do exactly as they
wish."

"No, no!" urged Mr. Lockwood, hastily. "They don't always do as they
wish. Sometimes we haven't the money to let them do _with_. I've heard
Mrs. Betsey say so. And--and--why, there is one of them who likes three
lumps of sugar in her coffee; but I always reprove her for it. That is
extravagance."

"Huh!" sniffed Aunt Dora.

"Otherwise they are no trouble to me at all," said Mr. Lockwood,
briskly. "They are not, I assure you. We live a very quiet and peaceful
life here."

"Yah!" exclaimed his sister. "That is all you want--peace."

"I admit it--I admit it," returned her brother. "I am naturally retiring
and of a peaceful disposition, Dora."

"You're a natural born fool, Lemuel!" declared his sister, so sharply
that the twins, who were inadvertently listening at the door, hesitating
to go in, fairly jumped. "I want to tell you right now that you are a
disgrace to manhood! You've never amounted to a row of beans since you
were out of pinafores. If your little property wasn't tied up hard and
fast so that you could only use the income of it, you would have
frittered it all away long ago, and left these children penniless.
You've never made a dollar in your life, Lemuel Lockwood!"

"But--but there has never been any real necessity for me to make money,"
stammered the horticulturist. "And one of these days we are going to
have a plenty. I've got a melon started here on the bench, Dora----"

"You needn't show me any of your nasty plants. They're all ridi