k or not, I s'pose, 'cause they 're asleep and
don't know it. I wish I was asleep, anyway. I wish I had n't gone
down into that yard. I guess I do know I ought n't to have done it,
and I am just as sorry as I can be. I could n't be any more sorry if
papa should call me Rebecca Harper, and scold me like everything, and
if mamma should scold me, too. I guess I won't say anything even if
Ann scolds me, for I know I ought not to have done such a dreadful
thing. Suppose I had been all burned up; and that is just what would
have happened if my papa had not come! I wonder how he happened to
come down into the yard and see the fire. I never s'posed he would
come. I thought I was just going to be all burned up, so I did. Was
n't it dreadful to be so close to a fire, and not be able to get away?
I would have been all burned up by this time, and my house would have
been all burned up, too, and no one would ever have known what became
of me. Mamma would always have said, 'I wonder where Ruby could
possibly have gone, and why she never, never comes home,' and papa
would worry and worry, and Ruthy would have been so lonely, and they
would never, never have known."

At the thought of such sad consequences to her mischief, Ruby cried a
little, and before her tears had dried, she was fast asleep, so she did
not know how ill her mamma was all night, nor how great had been the
consequences of her mischief.

In the morning when Ruby waked up, she found Ann by her bedside.

"Here is your breakfast," said Ann, putting down a tray with Ruby's
bowl of bread and milk upon it, on a little table. "Your papa says you
are to stay here till he comes up and lets you out. Oh, Ruby, how
could you be so naughty and worry your poor mamma? You don't know how
sick you made her with your cutting up."

Ann did not speak angrily, but she seemed to feel so badly about Mrs.
Harper's illness that Ruby felt very subdued and did not try to defend
herself as usual.

"I don't want to stay up here. I want to go down and eat my breakfast
with Aunt Emma," she said, presently, turning her head away, so Ann
might not see the tears which were coming into her eyes.

"Your papa said you must stay up here," Ann repeated, and without
saying anything more, she went out, and Ruby heard the bolt slide, and
knew that she was a prisoner.

"I don't like to be locked in. I just won't be," she said angrily; and
she thought she would jump up and go and pound at