n it is slippery,"
continued Jill, proud of her superior knowledge, as she showed a small
spotted animal hanging by its tail, with a red tongue displayed as if
about to taste the sweeties in the horn below.

"Don't talk about sleds, for mercy's sake! I never want to see another,
and you wouldn't, either, if you had to lie with a flat-iron tied to
your ankle, as I do," said Jack, with a kick of the well leg and an
ireful glance at the weight attached to the other that it might not
contract while healing.

"Well, I think plasters, and liniment, and rubbing, as bad as flat-irons
any day. I don't believe you have ached half so much as I have, though
it sounds worse to break legs than to sprain your back," protested Jill,
eager to prove herself the greater sufferer, as invalids are apt to be.

"I guess you wouldn't think so if you'd been pulled round as I was when
they set my leg. Caesar, how it did hurt!" and Jack squirmed at the
recollection of it.

"You didn't faint away as I did when the doctor was finding out if my
_vertebrums_ were hurt, so now!" cried Jill, bound to carry her point,
though not at all clear what vertebrae were.

"Pooh! Girls always faint. Men are braver, and I didn't faint a bit in
spite of all that horrid agony."

"You howled; Frank told me so. Doctor said _I_ was a brave girl, so
you needn't brag, for you'll have to go on a crutch for a while. I know
that."

"You may have to use two of them for years, may be. I heard the doctor
tell my mother so. I shall be up and about long before you will. Now
then!"

Both children were getting excited, for the various pleasures of the
day had been rather too much for them, and there is no knowing but they
would have added the sad surprise of a quarrel to the pleasant ones of
the day, if a cheerful whistle had not been heard, as Ralph came in to
light the candles and give the last artistic touches to the room.

"Well, young folks, how goes it? Had a merry time so far?" he asked, as
he fixed the steps and ran up with a lighted match in his hand.

"Very nice, thank you," answered a prim little voice from the dusk
below, for only the glow of the fire filled the room just then.

Jack said nothing, and two red sulky faces were hidden in the dark,
watching candle after candle sputter, brighten, and twinkle, till the
trembling shadows began to flit away like imps afraid of the light.

"Now he will see my face, and I know it is cross," thought Jill, as
Ralph