mpo's don't begin with two words on one side. I'll get it, and Jack
and I will plan some way to pay him off, cross thing!"

Forgetting her promise not to stir, also how dishonorable it was to read
other people's letters, Jill caught up the long-handled hook, often in
use now, and tried to pull the paper nearer. It would not come at once,
for a seam in the carpet held it, and Jill feared to tear or crumple it
if she was not very careful. The hook was rather heavy and long for
her to manage, and Jack usually did the fishing, so she was not very
skilful; and just as she was giving a particularly quick jerk, she lost
her balance, fell off the sofa, and dropped the pole with a bang.

"Oh, my back!" was all she could think or say as she felt the jar all
through her little body, and a corresponding fear in her guilty little
mind that someone would come and find out the double mischief she had
been at. For a moment she lay quite still to recover from the shock,
then as the pain passed she began to wonder how she should get back, and
looked about her to see if she could do it alone. She thought she could,
as the sofa was near and she had improved so much that she could sit
up a little if the doctor would have let her. She was gathering herself
together for the effort, when, within arm's reach now, she saw the
tempting paper, and seized it with glee, for in spite of her predicament
she did want to tease Frank. A glance showed that it was not the
composition nor a note, but the beginning of a letter from Mrs. Minot to
her sister, and Jill was about to lay it down when her own name caught
her eye, and she could not resist reading it. Hard words to write of one
so young, doubly hard to read, and impossible to forget.

"Dear Lizzie,--Jack continues to do very well, and will soon be up
again. But we begin to fear that the little girl is permanently injured
in the back. She is here, and we do our best for her; but I never
look at her without thinking of Lucinda Snow, who, you remember, was
bedridden for twenty years, owing to a fall at fifteen. Poor little
Janey does not know yet, and I hope"--There it ended, and "poor little
Janey's" punishment for disobedience began that instant. She thought she
was getting well because she did not suffer all the time, and every one
spoke cheerfully about "by and by." Now she knew the truth, and shut her
eyes with a shiver as she said, low, to herself,--

"Twenty years! I couldn't bear it; oh, I co