the bad place just because they didn't
know?"

Miss Mehitable squirmed in her chair, for never before had Araminta
spoken thus. "There's no excuse for their not knowin'," she said,
sharply.

"Perhaps not," sighed Araminta, "but it seems dreadful to think of
people being burned up just for ignorance. Do you think I'll be
burned up, Aunt Hitty?" she continued, anxiously. "There's so many
things I don't know!"

Miss Mehitable set herself firmly to her task. "Araminta Lee," she
said, harshly, "don't get to bothering about what you don't know.
That's the sure way to perdition. I've told you time and time again
what's right for you to believe and what's right for you to do. You
walk in that path and turn neither to the right nor the left, and you
won't have no trouble--here or anywheres else."

"Yes, Aunt Hitty," said the girl, dutifully. "It must be awful to be
burned."

Miss Mehitable looked about her furtively, then drew her chair closer
to Araminta's. "That brings to my mind something I wanted to speak
to you about, and I don't know but what this is as good a chance as
any. You know where I told you to go the other day with the tray,
and to set it down at the back door, and rap, and run?"

"Yes." Araminta's eyes were wide open now. She had wondered much at
her mysterious errand, but had not dared to ask questions.

"Well," continued Aunt Hitty, after an aggravating pause, "the woman
that lives in that house has been burnt."

Araminta gasped. "Oh, Aunt Hitty, was she bad? What did she do and
how did she get burned before she was dead?"

Miss Mehitable brushed aside the question as though it were an
annoying fly. "I don't want it talked of," she said, severely.
"Evelina Grey was a friend of mine, and she is yet. If there's
anything on earth I despise, it's a gossip. People who haven't
anything better to do than to go around prying into other folks's
affairs are better off dead, I take it. My mother never permitted me
to gossip, and I've held true to her teachin'." Aunt Hitty smoothed
her skirts with superior virtue and tied a knot in her thread.

"How did she get burned?" asked Araminta, eagerly.

"Gossip," said Miss Mehitable, sententiously, "does a lot of harm and
makes a lot of folks miserable. It's a good thing to keep away from,
and if I ever hear of your gossiping about anybody, I'll shut you up
in your room for two weeks and keep you on bread and water."

Araminta trembled. "What