he learned afterwards that Mrs. Fixfax had found the rings in the
bottom of the ivory bathing-tub, where Fly had had her "turkey wash."

Hark! Auntie was counting: "One, two, three, four. All safe. Not that I
supposed any one would meddle with my cabinet, of course."

"Auntie," burst forth Dotty, her face tingling with shame, "_I_ did. I
wore two of those rings, and lost 'em off my thumbs. I don't see how
they ever came back in that cabinet, for the only thing I know certain
true is, I never put 'em there. O, auntie, if I had't found 'em, I was
'most afraid to tell you about it, because my father's so poor."

"Child, child, you wouldn't have deceived me? I could bear anything
better than that. And, Dotty, I don't believe it of you. You would have
told the truth."

"Yes, auntie, I do guess I should. It's better to eat fried pork than to
act out a lie." What the truth had to do with eating fried pork, Aunt
Madge could not imagine; but she assured Dotty she fully believed her
when she promised not to meddle in future; and the child bounded down
stairs with a heart like a bubble.

Fly had come up to go to bed.

"I've found sumpin," cried she, peeping into a basket behind the door.
"It's got eyes, and I know it's a doggie."

"You little rogue! I didn't mean you should see that dog to-night."

"O, it's no matter 'bout me. If _Dotty'd_ seen it, she'd been
_'spectin'_ it!"

The quick-witted child knew just as well then as she did next morning,
that the dog--a King Charles spaniel--was intended for her. Mrs. Allen
was so amused that she could scarcely sing Fly's by-low hymn:---

"Sleep, little one, like a lamb in the fold.
Shut from the tempest, safe from the cold;
Sleep, little one, like a star in the sky,
Wrapped in a cloud, while the storm-wind sweeps by."

It was quite as hard to keep a grave face when Fly added to her evening
prayer the petition,--

"God f'give me speakin' a naughty word _'fore Miss Perdigoff_."

"What naughty word, darling?"

"Hunkydory," replied Fly, with a deep sense of guilt. Not that she
thought it wrong to use a coarse word, only wrong to use it "'fore Miss
Perdigoff."

Aunt Madge entered into a short explanation of the true nature of right
and wrong; but her words were thrown away, for that "curly dog" filled
every nook and corner of Fly's little mind.

CHAPTER XII.

"FOLDED EYES."

"Folded eyes see brighter colors
Than the open ever do."

It