then we'll make a lady's chair and carry him home."

"Don't want to thwing," lisped Charlie.

"What for you don't?" said wee Katie.

"Cauthe the ladieth will thee me."

"O, you's a little scat crow!"

"Hush, Katie," said the older children; "do look at his hair; it curls
almost as tight as dandelion stems."

"Thee the dimple in my chin!"

"Which chin?" said Prudy; "you've got three of them."

"And the wuffle wound my neck! Gueth what we've got over to my houthe?
Duckth."

"O, ducks?" cried Dotty; "that's what I want to make me happy. There,
Prudy, think of their velvet heads and beads of eyes, waddling about
this yard."

"People sometimes take ducks' eggs and put them in a hen's nest," said
Prudy, reflectively.

"O, there now," whispered Dotty, "shouldn't you think Mrs. Gray might
give me three or four eggs for carrying the milk every single night?"

"Why, yes, I should; and perhaps she will."

"I gueth my mamma wants me at home," said Charlie, yawning.

Prudy and Dotty went with him; and in her eagerness concerning the
ducks' eggs, Dotty quite forgot the secret draughts of milk she and
Katie had quaffed under the acorn-tree, calling it nectar. But this was
not the last of it.

CHAPTER III.

THE WHITE TRUTH.

Dotty continued to go to Mrs. Gray's every night with the milk.
Sometimes Katie went with her, and then they always paused a while under
the acorn-tree and played "King and Queen." Dotty said she wished they
could ever remember to bring their nipperkins, for in that case the milk
would taste a great deal more like nectar. The "nipperkins" were a pair
of handled cups which the children supposed to be silver, and which they
always used at table.

Dotty knew she was doing wrong every time she played "King and Queen."
She knew the milk was not hers, but Mrs. Gray's; still she said to
herself, "Ruthie needn't give so much measure, all pressed down and run
over. If Queenie and I should drink a great deal more, there would
always be a quart left. Yes, I know there would."

Mrs. Gray never said anything about the milk; she merely poured it out
in a pan, and gave back the pail to Dotty, asking her at the same time
as many questions as the child would stay to hear.

One night Dotty begged Prudy to go with her; she wished her to ask for
the ducks' eggs. When they reached the acorn tree Dotty did not stop;
she would never have thought of playing "King and Queen" with Prudy; she
was afraid of