"Rightful fiddlesticks! I'm no ward of yours; I'm Aunty Gower's niece; and the law's got nothing to do with me," replied Gipsy, with an audacious snap of her fingers; for neither Gipsy nor the boys knew how she was found on the beach.
"And is that all the thanks you give me for offering to plague myself with you, you ungrateful little varmint?"
"I'm not ungrateful, Squire Erliston!" flashed Gipsy—a streak of fiery red darting across her dark face. "I'm not ungrateful; but I won't be a slave to come at your beck; I won't be called a beggar—a pauper; I won't be told the workhouse is my rightful home; I won't be struck like a cur, and then kiss the hand that strikes me. No! I'm not ungrateful; but, though I'm only a little girl, I won't be insulted and abused for nothing. I can earn my own living, free and happy, without whining for any one's favor, thank Heaven!"
Her little form seemed to tower upward with the consciousness of inward power, her eyes filled, blazed, and dilated, and her dark cheek crimsoned with proud defiance.
The squire forgot his anger as he gazed in admiration on the high-spirited little creature standing before him, as haughty as a little empress. Stretching out his arms, he caught her, and seated her on his knee—stroking her short, dancing curls, as he said, in the playful tone one might use to a spoiled baby:
"And can't my little monkey make allowance for an old man's words? You know you were very naughty and mischievous that day, and I had cause to be angry with you; and if I said harsh things, it was all for your good, you know."
"All for my good!—such stuff! I wish you'd put me down. I'm a young lady, I'd have you to know; and I ain't going to be used like a baby, dandled up and down without any regard for my dignity!" said Gipsy, with so indignant an expression of countenance, that Archie—who, as I before mentioned, was blessed with a keen sense of the ludicrous—fell back, roaring with laughter.
"Now, Gipsy, my love, do be reasonable and return home with us," said Lizzie, impatiently.
"I won't, then—there!" said Gipsy, rather sullenly.
But the tears rushed into Lizzie's eyes—for she really was very fond of the eccentric elf—and in a moment Gipsy was off the squire's knee, and her arms round Lizzie's neck.