girl, an' she can't get married; besides, there ain't any prince
in Nu Orlins. No, somethin' will have to happen to her. I tell you, I
b'lieve I'll make a runaway horse run over her goin' home."

"Oh, no, Diddie, please don't," entreated Dumps; "po' little Nettie,
don't make the horse run over her."

"I'm _obliged to_, Dumps; you mustn't be so tender-hearted; she's got
ter be wound up somehow, an' I might let the Injuns scalp her, or the
bears eat her up, an' I'm sure that's a heap worse than jes er horse
runnin' over her; an' then you know she ain't no sho' nuff little girl;
she's only made up out of my head."

"I don't care, I don't want the horse to run over her. I think it's bad
enough to make her give 'way all her candy an' little tubs an' iuns an'
wheelbarrers, without lettin' the horses run over her; an' ef that's
the way you're goin' ter do, I sha'n't have nuthin' 'tall ter do with
it."

And Dumps, having thus washed her hands of the whole affair, went back
to her dolls, and Diddie resumed her writing:

"As she was agoin along, presently she herd sumthin cumin
book-er-ty-book, book-er-ty-book, and there was a big horse and a buggy
cum tearin down the road, and she ran jes hard as she could; but befo
she could git out er the way, the horse ran rite over her, and killed
her, and all the people took her up and carried her home, and put
flowers all on her, and buried her at the church, and played the organ
'bout her; and that's

"The END of Nettie Herbert."

"Oh, dear me!" she sighed, when she had finished, "I am tired of writin'
books; Dumps, sposin' you make up 'bout the 'Bad Little Girl,' an' I'll
write it down jes like you tell me."

"All right," assented Dumps, once more leaving her dolls, and coming to
the table. Then, after thinking for a moment, she began, with great
earnestness:

"Once pun er time there was er bad little girl, an' she wouldn't min'
nobody, nor do no way nobody wanted her to; and when her mother went ter
give her fyssick, you jes ought ter seen her cuttin' up! _she_ skweeled,
an' _she_ holler'd, an' _she_ kicked, an' she jes done ev'y bad way she
could; an' one time when she was er goin' on like that the spoon slipped
down her throat, an' choked her plum ter death; an' not long after that,
when she was er playin' one day--"

"Oh, but, Dumps," interrupted Diddie, "you said she was dead."

"No, I nuver said nuthin' 'bout her bein' dead," replied Dumps; "an' ef
you wrote down that