she'd let me! Yes, if I had five heads, she wouldn't have
said a word."

Dotty paced the floor restlessly, with her hands behind her.

"I shan't go back. Let 'em keep their old house. I can keep house my own
self up in this room--wish I'd brought Fly--she's too good for 'em. Wish
I hadn't come to New York to be imposed upon."

As Dotty was crossing and recrossing the room, her eye fell on one of
the illuminated cards on the wall, printed in red and gold, and wreathed
with delicate lilies of the valley--"God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace to the humble."

The angry child stopped short.

"Who put that there? What did auntie mean? She meant _me_. Everybody
means me. I wouldn't have thought that of auntie."

Dotty turned away; but the words followed her across the room like the
eyes of a portrait.

"'God resisteth the proud.' Well, who said I was proud? People are so
queer! Always think it's me wants the best things. 'Giveth grace to the
humble.' There, I s'pose that means Prudy. She's just as humble! Never
wants to take the best parts when we play. O, no; Prudy's humble?
Prudy's a _hero-ess_!'"

But scold as she might, those burning red words were looking right down
into Dotty's soul. Though she shut her eyes, there they were still.
"'God resisteth the proud.' Am I proud?--Yes. Does God _resisteth_
me?--Yes, for the Bible can't lie. What _is_ resisteth? Something that
makes you feel bad, prob'ly. That's why I can't be happy. I won't be
proud another minute."

Dotty winked fast, set her teeth together, pinched her neck, and
swallowed.

"There, it's going down my throat like a pill,--its gone! Am I proud any
more? No--_for_ I really don't s'pose I can make gingerbread quite so
well as Prudy! I never made any but once, and then Norah took it out of
the oven and put in the ginger and molasses. No, I'm not proud. I don't
want to keep house. I shouldn't know how. It would be very much better
to go back and behave, for I can't stay here without being lonesome."

Dotty looked again at the red and gold text. "How different it seems to
me now I'm humble! People needn't be proud if they'd swallow it down
like a pill."

Dotty's reasoning was rather mixed; still it is worthy of notice, that
she was doing a remarkable thing for her, as she slowly walked back to
her auntie's room.

But all this while Prudy, too, had been suffering. She could never bear
to have her young sister angry, and, if it had not been for Ho