"Oh, Stella!" Dora exclaimed in horror. "How dishonest of her!"
"It was very dishonest," Mrs. Knight said gravely; "I don't like the idea of one child borrowing from another. I should be very angry if either of the twins did such a thing! If children want money they should go to their parents, not to strangers; you are all allowed so much a week pocket-money, and you must each learn to live within your income, whatever it is. I think you will like school on the whole, and I believe it will be much better for the boys."
"Oh, yes," Dora agreed, "for George especially; he's so conceited."
"Oh, indeed, miss!" cried George wrathfully, making a rush at his sister, who fled from the room shrieking with merriment, her brother after her.
George, a great tease always, could, never bear to have the laugh turned against himself, and he and Dora were perpetually sparring with each other, and making it up again.
At Easter Miss Clarke went home to be married, and the short vacation over, the children were sent to school: the boys to the grammar school of the town, where they soon settled down quietly enough, and the girls to a private school about ten minutes' walk from their home.
[CHAPTER VII]
HAPPINESS IN THE DOCTOR'S HOME
"A YEAR ago to-day!" said Stella to her aunt, lifting her head from the exercise she was preparing for her French teacher. "A year ago to-day, Aunt Mary!"
"So the little town mouse has been with us so long as that, has she?"