The children went out in the front porch, greatly pleased with the idea of having their Riverside friends with them. Dear Grandpapa Duncan and Aunt Helen, merry Uncle John and little Nellie! Maggie went hopping about the path, while Bessie sat down on the steps with a very contented smile. Presently she said,—
"Maggie, if you was on the grass, what would you be?"
"I don't know," said Maggie; "just Maggie Stanton Bradford, I suppose."
"You'd be a grasshopper," said Bessie.
Maggie stopped hopping to laugh. She thought this a very fine joke; and when, a moment after, her brothers came up to the house, she told them of Bessie's "conundrum." They laughed, too, and then ran off to the barn.
Maggie sat down on the step by her sister. "Bessie," she said, "don't you think Mrs. Jones is very horrid, even if she does make us gingerbread men?"
"Not very; I think she is a little horrid."
"I do," said Maggie; "she talks so; she called papa and mamma 'York folks.'"
"What does that mean?" asked Bessie.
"I don't know; something not nice, I'm sure."