"Yes; he asked me once if you were engaged to Mr. Adams."
"And what did you tell him?" said Mara, with increasing interest.
"Well, I only plagued him. I sometimes made him think you were, and sometimes that you were not; and then again, that there was a deep mystery in hand. But I praised and glorified Mr. Adams, and told him what a splendid match it would be, and put on any little bits of embroidery here and there that I could lay hands on. I used to make him sulky and gloomy for a whole evening sometimes. In that way it was one of the best weapons I had."
"Sally, what does make you love to tease people so?" said Mara.
"Why, you know the hymn says,—
'Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature too.'
That's all the account I can give of it."
"But," said Mara, "I never can rest easy a moment when I see I am making a person uncomfortable."
"Well, I don't tease anybody but the men. I don't tease father or mother or you,—but men are fair game; they are such thumby, blundering creatures, and we can confuse them so."
"Take care, Sally, it's playing with edge tools; you may lose your heart some day in this kind of game."