“Read it aloud, while I hold her down, and we’ll soon know all about that boasted lover!”
Little Eva was like wax in the grasp of her stronger cousin. She wriggled and twisted, but escape was impossible, so, at length, she drooped her head with a dejected sob, while Gran’ther Groves looked on benignly, thinking it was all just a girlish frolic between the girls. His honest mind never suspected their secret malignity toward his pet.
“Why, it’s poetry! What weak rot! It makes me feel sick!” ejaculated Patty.
“I want to know! But read it, anyway. I’ll listen if it makes us all sick,” put in the spinster curiously, so Patty cleared her throat and read with an air of fine disdain:
“WHEN EVA LAUGHS.”
“When Eva laughs the dimples play
At hide-and-seek upon her cheek,
Like butterflies ’mong roses gay,
While twinkling, starry eyes bespeak
A mirthful mind, a nature kind,