was troubled that
night. No wonder Emily awoke in a fright, caused by the terrible
nightmare. But Jessie's sleep was sweet and sound, and when her mother
stood over her bed, as she always did before retiring for the night,
Jessie smiled so sweetly in her slumber that her mother said:--

"Bless her! the smile of a seraph is on her lips."

As Uncle Morris foretold, Emily and Charlie left their sulks in dreamland.
It would have been well if they had left the _selfishness_, from which
their conduct of the evening before sprung, in the same place. But that
still clung to them like the leprosy, and though they wore bright faces,
they still carried fireworks in their bosom, ready to explode whenever a
spark might happen to touch them.

Jessie greeted her cousins with gentle words and loving kisses, just as if
she had never seen them in a fit of bad temper. Indeed, she made no
allusion whatever to the affair of the day before. This silence puzzled
the cousins, who expected, at least, a lecture from Uncle Morris and a
little coldness from Jessie. I think it also made them feel ashamed, for
they could not help saying to themselves,--

"It was rather mean in us to make such a fuss as we did yesterday."

Just after breakfast, while Jessie was showing Emily her six dolls,
neither of which had a perfect dress, for Jessie never _finished_ any
thing, and Charlie was playing with Guy's india-rubber ball in the hall,
Hugh plunged in at the front door, and, rushing into the sitting-room,
said:--

"Jessie, what will you give me if I tell you a secret?"

"A kiss," replied Jessie, gathering her lips into the form of a rose-bud.

"Pooh! what's a kiss. I wouldn't give you a red cent for a thousand
kisses. Won't you offer me something better for my secret?" said Hugh,
turning up his nose as if in scorn of the proffered kiss.

"I don't believe you have any secret that we care about knowing," said
Jessie. Then holding up her best wax doll, she said to Emily, "Isn't this
a beauty?"

"Yes, but why don't you coax Hugh to tell us his wonderful secret?" said
Emily, who felt quite curious to know what Hugh had to tell.

"Oh, he is only teasing us. You don't know what a tease he is," replied
Jessie, with an air of indifference.

"No, honor bright, I'm not teasing. I have a secret that would make you
girls pitch your dolls into next week, if you knew it," retorted Hugh.

"Well, what is it? Do tell us," said Jessie, beginning to believe that