eyes
dilating with horror.

"Why, in the first place," said Mr. Harrington, "I bought a _terrier_,
and in the next a large _rat-trap_; and by means of both, I succeed in
laying several of the spirits every night, and have strong hopes that,
before long, perfect quiet will be restored to the haunted mansion."

Then calling Jessie, who was in the room, to his side, Mr. Harrington
took her in his lap, and said:

"You remind me very much of a little blue-eyed, flaxen-haired girl I
have in the city."

"Why, have you a little girl?" Mr. Harrington, asked the young ladies.

"Yes, two of them," he answered.

"Oh, how I _doat_ on children!" exclaimed Miss Calista.

"Cousin Agnes, what is the meaning of _doat_?" screamed Master Frank,
running up to Agnes, who just then entered the room.

"What is it to _doat_ on any one?"

"It is to love them very dearly;" answered Agnes quietly.

"Ho! C'listy says she _doats_ on children--she doats on us, don't she
Rosa?" and Master Frank laughed such a laugh of derision, that Mr.
Harrington was obliged to say something very funny to little Jessie, who
was still sitting on his knee, in order to have an excuse for laughing
too.

Miss Calista fairly trembled with concealed rage, and soon succeeded in
having Master Frank sent off to bed. Indeed, Frank was the cause of so
much mortification to Miss Calista, that she would gladly have banished
him too from the parlor, but he was lawless, and no one in the house
could do anything with him but Agnes.

Mr. Harrington was very fond of children, and often had long
conversations with little Frank, whose bold, independent manners seemed
to please him much. One evening when he was talking to him, Frank said:

"Mr. Harrington I'm saving up my money to buy a boat just like yours."

"You are, hey, Frank? and how much have you got towards it?" asked Mr.
Harrington.

"Oh! I've got two sixpences, and a shilling, and three pennies;" said
Frank. "I keep all my money in a china-box, one of C'listy's boxes she
used to keep her red paint in; _this_, you know!" touching each cheek
with his finger.

This was too much for Miss Calista; she rushed from the room, and vented
her indignation in a burst of angry tears, and the next time she met
Master Frank, she gave him a slap upon his cheek, which made it a deeper
crimson than the application of her own paint would have done. All these
slights and mortifications were revenged upon poor Agnes, who would