culous.
And it isn't plants we're talking about. It's girls. Mercy knows how an
inscrutable Providence ever came to allow two helpless girl babies to
fall into your hands, Lemuel. But they're here and you've the burden of
them. One would be more than you could manage properly; but two is
ridiculous. I'd undertake, as I have told you before, to bring my
namesake up as a girl _should_ be brought up--and that will leave more
money for you to fritter away on your hot-beds and cold-frames, and the
like," she added, slily.

"Dora!" exclaimed Mr. Lockwood, with a quaver in his voice, "do you
really think I am not doing my duty by Dora and Dorothy?"

"Think it?" sniffed his sister. "I know it! And everybody else with
sense knows it. How can a mere man bring up twin girls and give them a
proper start in life?"

"But Mrs. Betsey does her very best----"

"And what does _she_ know?" demanded his sister. "Does she ever read
papers upon the proper management of girls? Or magazine articles upon
what a young girl should be taught by her parents? Or books upon the
growth and development of the girlish mind?"

"No--o," admitted Mr. Lockwood. "I am very sure Mrs. Betsey never has
time for such reading."

"Then what does she know about it?" demanded Aunt Dora, triumphantly.

"But they are hardly ever sick--and how pretty they both are!" sighed
the father of the twins.

"Bah! never sick! pretty!" ejaculated Aunt Dora, staccato. "What about
their souls, Lemuel Lockwood? What about the development of their minds?
Have you done aught to make them stern and uncompromising when they meet
the world on an equal footing--as all women shall in the time to come?
Are you preparing them for their work in life? Are they prepared to take
the helm of affairs and show Man how Woman can guide affairs of moment?"

"I--I hope not!" murmured Mr. Lockwood, aghast. "They are just girls
going to school, and studying, and having fun, and loving each other.
No, Dora, the stern duties of life have not troubled them as yet, thank
God!"

"But they should be beginning to realize them, Lemuel," declared his
sister. "Life is not fun. There is no time to dawdle around with plays,
and athletics, and such foolishness. Where are they this minute, Lemuel
Lockwood?"

"Why--why, they went out on the lake."

"In what?"

"A canoe, I understand."

"And what's a canoe?" gasped Aunt Dora. "Is _that_ a proper thing for
young girls to ride in? Why! it's a savage boa