ttle girl I saw once at the
theatre, who danced so gracefully that I thought she must be a fairy.
She seemed ever so much like Nancy, but she had--"

"Come here, Nancy," called Jeanette, sharply, "Lola says she saw a girl
once, at a theatre in New York, who danced and looked like you. What do
you think of that?"

"_Jeanette_!" cried Nina, surprised that her sister should be so eager
to tease Nancy, but Nancy did not seem annoyed.

She looked straight into Jeanette's flashing eyes, as she said, quietly:

"Perhaps Lola did see me dance; I was in New York."

"Oh, I didn't say it was you who danced at the theatre. I said the
little girl was like you, but I remember now her hair was yellow," Lola
said.

"I wore a wig of long yellow curls," Nancy said, "and I had to dance
whether I wished to or not; Uncle Steve made me. Oh, I was not happy
there. I was never so happy as when I've been with dear Aunt Charlotte,
and Dorothy. Let's talk about something else."

Jeanette felt a bit ashamed. Nina wished that her sister had not been so
rude, and for a few moments neither could think of anything to say, but
just at that moment Dorothy joined them, and soon they were talking as
gaily as before.

Then Katie and Reginald came hurrying along the avenue, and a moment
later Mollie Merton and Flossie Barnet, and soon they were all
chattering like a flock of sparrows.

"Say! Just listen to me a minute," shouted Reginald, "I've got something
great to tell you, but I can't until you'll hark."

"What is it? What is it?" cried the eager voices.

"It's just this," he said with much importance: "My mamma called on Aunt
Charlotte yesterday, and while they were talking 'bout our school Aunt
Charlotte said that the big girls would begin to study history this
week, and my brother Bob says it'll be all 'bout cutting folks' heads
off. I guess it'll scare girls to study that. 'Twould scare me, and
_I'm_ a boy!"

"Why, Reginald Dean!" cried Katie.

"My middle name's Merton," said the small boy, coolly.

"Well, Reginald Merton Dean, then," Katie said, "and whatever your name
is, you ought not to tell things like that!"

"Like what? Like learning 'bout folks choppin' off other folks' heads?
Well, I guess it's so if my big brother says so," Reginald replied.

The girls did not believe it, but they could not deny it. They knew that
Reginald _thought_ what he said was true, but they believed that, in
some way, the facts had become twisted.