'But they never get punished, and they're never scolded, and they're never wicked.'
This from Betty.
'It's their talk that is so stupid,' went on Douglas; 'they look nice until they begin to talk; they make me dreadfully sleepy to listen to them.'
'Shall I go down instead of you to-night?' asked Betty eagerly.
'Don't chatter such nonsense; it's strange times when children begin to pick their elders to pieces. You weren't asked for, Miss Betty; and Master Douglas is to go down and behave himself.'
'The three B's aren't big enough yet to leave the nursery.'
Douglas said this with a sparkle of mischief in his eye. It was a sore point with Betty to be ranked with the twins, for she was only a year behind Douglas. Long ago he had seized hold of a laughing joke of his father's, alluding to the names by which the three youngest children were called, and had twitted her with it ever since.
'B for Baby—Baby Betty, Baby Bobby, and Baby Billy; babies must go to bed,' he explained.
Betty gave an angry kick under the table, but did not speak.
She was very silent for the rest of that evening; but when she and Molly were safely in bed, and the room was very quiet, she asked,—