"I am not going to obey Lena. I'll go with Milly, but I don't love Lena; she's horrid." And pulling her arm away from Lena's restraining grasp, she struck wildly at her, to push her away.
Lucy's words were but added fuel to Lena's wrath. Seizing the child firmly by her shoulders she gave her a good shaking, saying as she did so, "I don't care if you like me or not, but you must do what I tell you."
"O Lena, don't be angry; she does not mean what she says, I know she doesn't," said Milly.
The shaking so took Lucy by surprise, for she was unaccustomed to such strong measures, that she stopped screaming, and gazed at Lena's angry face in open-mouthed astonishment.
In the midst of this scene Hester's voice was heard exclaiming, "Miss Lena, whatever is the matter? That's not the way to treat your little sister. I wonder at you, that I do!"
At the sound of Hester's voice, Lena quickly removed her hands from Lucy's shoulders, and turning to her said, "She has been so naughty, Hester; she would not come home, though we told her it was late, and she went on screaming."
"But you hurt me," sobbed the child. "I would have gone with Milly, because she's kind and nice."
"That's a wicked story, Lucy. You know quite well Milly had to drag you along as well as I; hadn't you, Milly?"
"Yes," she asserted; "but, Lucy, you will be good now?"
"You should not have been so rough with her, Miss Lena; you don't understand how to manage children."