"I'd say, 'Beware, woman!'" said Maggie, drawing her eyebrows into a frown, and extending her hand with the forefinger raised in a threatening manner.
"Oh!" said Bessie, "what does that mean?"
"I don't quite know," said Maggie, slowly, "but it frightens people very much."
"It don't frighten me a bit when you say it."
"'Cause you don't have a guilty conscience; but if you had, you'd be, oh, so afraid!"
"How do you know I would?"
"I'll tell you," said Maggie. "Uncle John had a picture paper the other day, and in it was a picture of a woman coming in at the door, and she had her hands up so, and she looked as frightened, as frightened, and a man was standing behind the curtain doing so, and under the picture was 'Beware, woman!' I asked Uncle John what it meant, and he said that was a wicked woman who was going to steal some papers so she could get some money, and when she came in, she heard somebody say, 'Beware, woman,' and she was so frightened she ran away and was never seen again. I asked him to tell me more about it, but he said, 'No, it was a foolish story, not fit for little people.' Then I asked him if foolish stories were only fit for big people, but he just laughed and pinched my cheek. But I coaxed him to tell me why the woman was so frightened when the man did nothing but say those two words, and he said it was because she had a guilty conscience, for wicked people feared what good and innocent people did not mind at all. So if that old Mrs. Patty—I sha'n't call her aunt—don't behave herself to you, Bessie, I'll just try it."
"Do you think she has a guilty conscience, Maggie?"
"Course she has; how could she help it?"
"And will she yun away and never be seen again?"