“O, I don’t think step-mothers are horrid,” objected Dorothy.
“Yeth, they are,” insisted Dicky. “All the fairy stories say they’re cruel.”
“O, fairy stories,” sniffed Dorothy.
“I imagine fairy stories are right about step-mothers,” insisted Ethel Blue.
“Did you ever know one?” asked Dorothy.
“No, I never did; but I have a feeling that they couldn’t love a child that wasn’t their own.”
“Why not?” demanded Ethel Brown. “Mother loves you just as well as she does her own children and you’re only her niece.”
“Not her own niece, either—Uncle Roger’s niece,” corrected Ethel Blue; “but then, Aunt Marion is a darling.”
“I don’t see why a step-mother shouldn’t be a darling.”
“I don’t see why she shouldn’t be but I don’t believe she ever is,” and Ethel Blue stuck to her opinion.