Jessie blushed deeply and was about to speak, when Emily, growing fiery red with anger, said:
“Well, if you don’t choose to believe me, you needn’t, but I don’t think it’s very polite to talk to me as if you thought I was telling you a lie.”
Seeing that her young guest was fast losing her temper, and that Master Charlie was nodding over his empty plate and tea-cup, Mrs. Carlton rose from the tea-table, and addressing the two girls, said:
“Perhaps, as you are wearied with your excursion, my dears, you had better retire now, and finish your talk about it to-morrow, when you are rested. Come, Charlie, open your eyes and go to bed!”
“Let me alone!” growled the drowsy boy, as his aunt took his hand to lift him from his chair, and lead him from the room.
Jessie sighed, and looked as if she too had a story to tell when she kissed her Uncle Morris good-night. The old gentleman returned her kiss very affectionately, and whispered,
“Jessie, you make me think of the proverb which says, The day that the little chicken is pleased, is the very day that the hawk takes hold of him. Good night, dear!”
Jessie was puzzled, and all the way up-stairs kept saying to herself, “What can Uncle Morris mean? what can Uncle Morris mean?” And while undressing she said still to herself, “I can’t be the chicken, because I’m not pleased—but stop—Yes, I was pleased this morning. Perhaps, then, I’m the chicken. And the hawk—must—be—well—it must be Emily! Ah! I see now. He thinks Emily has made me do some wrong to-day. And he is right too. It was wrong to hide away in the quarry. It was worse to pretend not to hear when the boys called us. That was acting a lie. And it was wrong for me to keep still when Emily made up that wicked story about our getting lost. Oh dear! Oh dear! How sorry I am! I wish I hadn’t hid away in the quarry!”
“What makes you look so glum, Miss Solemn Face?” asked Emily, who, without kneeling down to say her evening prayer, was getting ready for bed as fast as her nimble fingers could move.
“I am thinking that I did wrong to-day,” replied Jessie, sighing deeply and standing motionless in the middle of the chamber.