“Oh, lots of things,” said Will. “Beat us sometimes, and shut us in dark cupboards, and sent us to bed without supper. One night they made Cissy—”
“Never mind, Will,” said Cissy blushing.
“But they’d better know,” said Will stoutly. “They made Cissy kneel all night on the floor of the dormitory, tied to a bed-post. They said if she wouldn’t kneel to the saint, she should kneel without it. And Sister Mary asked her how she liked saying her prayers to the moon.”
“Cruel, hard-hearted wretches!” exclaimed Dorothy.
“Then they used to keep us several hours without anything to eat, and at the end of it they would hold out something uncommon good, and just when we were going to take it they’d snatch it away.”
“I’ll tell you what, if I had known that a bit sooner, they’d have had a piece of my mind,” said Dorothy.
“With some thorns on it, I guess,” commented the miller.
“Eh, dear, but I marvel if I could have kept my fingers off ’em! And they beat thee, Will?”
“Hard,” said Will.
“And thee, Cissy?”