"Oh, do not scold us," Martha entreated, shrinking back.
"No, no, brother, let us be gentle."
"Stuff! Now, girls, you get at that spinning wheel as I tell you."
The two girls looked at each other. They no longer dared carry matters with a high hand, and yet how could they spin? They knew no more how to spin than did a couple of pussy-cats. After going up to the wheels and looking at them in wonder, they exclaimed:
"I can't."
"What?" yelled Plunkett.
"We—we don't know how."
"Well, upon my soul!" Plunkett cried. "Now you two sit down there as quick as you can." They sat as if they were shot. Plunkett seemed very much in earnest. "Now turn those wheels!"
"They—they will not turn," they cried, trying and making an awful botch of it.
"Twist the thread," Lionel instructed with much anxiety.