"I shall not do any such thing, Miss Julia Parmalee, so there!" answered Matty, with a movement of her whole person which I don't know how to describe otherwise than as a flounce. "You may get some one else to do your errands for you; and as for me, I am too proud to go where I am not wanted."
The girls looked at each other, and Julia answered, gently,—
"But we do want you, Matilda. Why should you think we don't?"
"Because I know you all feel above me; you Crocker school girls think yourselves above all the rest of the world. I think I am as good as you are any day, if I don't wear a gold watch. And I must say, as for the missionaries, I think, when they are able to give away gold watches to their nieces, they are able to support themselves."
"Oh!" said Lizzy, in a tone which implied "Now I understand."
"But, Matilda, neither my aunt nor uncle gave me the watch," said Marion. "It was sent me by my father-in-law, Mr. Van Alstine."
"Oh yes, so you say now! And you couldn't keep quiet about it, but must look at it once in ten minutes all Sunday school time. I do hate such ostentation."
"Matty, did you ever have a loose tooth?" asked Therese.
"Yes, I suppose so; what of it?" answered Matilda, forgetting her anger for the moment in the oddity of the question.
"And didn't you keep touching it with your tongue or feeling it every few minutes?"