ly) and took the lamp into the
little room beyond, where she always slept.

The first thing that she did was to look in the glass. What a girlish
little face it was! How foolishly its dimples came and went with its
smiles! In what an effeminate manner the hair crinkled above it, and
then went rambling off into half a yard of stylish disorder! Mollie
lifted the hair in her hand and surveyed it thoughtfully. Then she
took a thoughtful survey of the scissors in her work-basket. Then
she reached them. She allowed herself a moment of conscientious
reflection; then the boy's naughty spirit crept down through her
fingers and set the scissors flying, and the deed was done.

It was not easy to satisfy her mother's amazement and vexation in the
morning; but Mollie stumbled through it and went to school. There
opportunities were few. She coaxed her teacher to let her study
book-keeping, and took one disagreeable lesson in its first
principles; but she accomplished nothing else that day except the
putting of a general check upon weak-minded inclinations to be
frolicsome.

But that evening there was a fair sky, one of the soft, deep skies
that make imaginative little girls' brains dizzy; and Mollie tramped
down the gravel path to the gate and leaned over; then she soon
nestled her head in her arms and looked up and lost herself. Boyhood
was far from her dreamy fancies, when they were scattered by a tweak
at one of her cropped locks.

"What does this mean?" asked the voice of the neighbor over the fence.
"How came it to be done without my leave?"

"Don't I look manly, Mr. John?" said Mollie.

"What does it mean?" said he, severely.

"That would be telling," said Mollie.

"I intend that you shall tell me," said he.

"Oh, it's a secret!" said Mollie.

"All the better; we'll keep it together. Tell it."

He was a grown-up man, nearer thirty than twenty years old, who
stooped to take an interest in his neighbor's little girl, and
flattered himself that he was bringing her up in the way she should
go. It amused him in his leisure moments to try the experiment of
rearing a girl to be as unlike as possible the girl of the period.

From mere force of habit, Mollie opened her mouth and poured out her
heart to him. He seemed quite impressed by the solemn confession.
Mollie studied his face closely while she was speaking, and saw
nothing but a grave and earnest interest in her project. She could not
see deep enough to discover th