"I can't even if I wanted to," said Bessie, "'cause he's half Maggie's."
"Well, you give me your half, and Maggie's will run after it."
"No," said the little girl. "I wouldn't give you my Flossy for fifty seventeen apples;" and she walked away, but the boys followed.
"Where did you get so much hat?" said one.
"It is not much," said Bessie. "It is old and torn, 'cause I carried peach-pits and stones in it. Mamma is going to give it away."
"I don't know who'd thank her for it," said another. "I guess your ma spent all her money on your frock, and left none for your hat."
"She didn't," said Bessie, angrily; "she has plenty left."
"She's right stingy, then, to give you such a hat; it's only fit for the gutter, so here goes!" and the rude boy twitched off the unlucky hat, and sent it flying into the middle of the street, where a car passed over it. Bessie did not care much about her hat, but she was frightened and displeased.
"You are very yude," she said, "and I wont walk by you. You sha'n't talk so about my mamma."
"Maybe we'll walk by you though," said the boy, and they kept by her side for a few steps farther, when suddenly, with a loud yelp of pain, Flossy sprang from her arms, for one of the boys had pinched his tail so as to hurt him very much. The boys shouted, Flossy ran, they after him, and the next moment one of them caught him up, and they all disappeared with him round the corner.