"You owe Amity a great debt for saving the life of your favorite, Julia," said the Judge. "She showed a good deal of courage and presence of mind in the way she saved Pug."
"I think she would have done quite as well to let him alone," said Miss Julia. "I told her to let the men drown him, but it seems she has taken her own way about the matter. There, I am not blaming you, child," she added, good-naturedly, seeing that Amity blushed.
Miss Julia was almost always good-natured, unless she was uncomfortable. She was "pleasant when she was pleased," as the saying goes, and that was something, for a good many people are not even that.
"May I have Pug, if you don't want him when he gets well?" asked Amity, when she had a chance of speaking to her aunt after dinner.
"To be sure, if you want him, child," answered Miss Julia, in some surprise; "but I thought you and Pug were not very good friends."
"We never have been, but he was just as grateful as he could be when I took him out of the water; and besides," said Amity, sighing a little, "you know he will want some one to like him."
Miss Julia stooped down and kissed her little niece—a thing she had hardly ever done before of her own accord. "You are a good little soul," said she. "Yes, you may have him and welcome. I dare say you will make an excellent mistress for him."
"Oh, thank you, Aunt Julia! And there is one other thing: Mrs. Paget wants me to baste the patchwork for the sewing-school girls. May I?"
"Mrs. Paget has sewing-school on the brain, I think," said Miss Julia. "Yes, to be sure, if you like to do it. Why do you ask?"
"I always asked mamma before I did any such thing," said Amity.