hange them back
again?"

"She didn't know Totty was at Mrs. Curtis'. Neither did I. We never
dreamed that you couldn't be trusted to take a baby out to ride and
bring her home safely. She thought some dreadful thing had happened to
her child."

"Oh, Mother, did she? I'm so sorry. I never meant to tease her that way.
I only thought it would be a funny joke to see her think Dotty was
Totty."

"But, my little girl, you ought to have realized that it was a cruel and
even a dangerous joke. You cannot carelessly dispose of little human
beings as if they were dolls, or other inanimate things."

"I never thought of that, Mother. And, anyway, I started to tell you
about it, just as I went away, and you told me to run along, and tell
you what I had to tell after I came home."

"I thought you'd say that; but of course I thought you meant you wanted
to tell me some trifling incident, or something of little importance.
Can't you understand that what you did was not a trifle, but a grave
piece of misbehavior?"

"Mischief, Mother?"

Mrs. Maynard bit her lip to keep from smiling at Marjorie's innocent
request for information.

"It was mischief, I suppose. But it was more than that. It was real
wrong-doing. When little girls are trusted to do anything, they ought to
be very careful to do it earnestly and thoroughly, exactly as it is
meant to be done. If you had stopped to think, would you have thought
either of those mothers _wanted_ you to exchange their babies?"

Marjorie pondered.

"No," she said, at last; "but, truly, if I had thought ever so hard I
wouldn't have thought they'd mind it so much. Can't they take a joke,
Mother?"

"Marjorie, dear, you have a fun-loving disposition, but if it is to make
you joy and not sorrow all your life, you must learn what constitutes a
desirable 'joke.' To begin with, practical jokes are rarely, if ever,
desirable."

"What is a practical joke?"

"It's a little difficult to explain, my dear; but it's usually a
well-laid plan to make somebody feel foolish or angry, or appear
ridiculous. I think you hoped Mrs. Harrison would appear ridiculous by
petting another child while thinking it was her own. And you meant to
stand by and laugh at her."

This was putting it rather plainly, but Marjorie could not deny the
truth of her mother's statement.

"And so," went on Mrs. Maynard, "that was a very wrong intent,
especially from a little girl to a grown person. Practical jokes among
your