"Oh, yes," he was constrained to answer. "Charlie Anderson was in it. She beat him, too. And I started with them but I thought it would do those boys more good to be licked by a little girl than to have me 'tend to them myself." And Jimmie proceeded leisurely into the house.
"But I don't have to set off the fireworks," Cecelia Anne explained happily. "Jimmie says I don't have to if I don't want to. He's going to do it for me."
"Kind brother," ejaculated Mr. Hawtry. And across the bright gold braids of her little Atalanta, Mrs. Hawtry looked at her husband.
"Did he know?" she questioned, "or did he not? You thought we could be sure if he let her start."
"Well," was Mr. Hawtry's cryptic utterance, "he knows now."
THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD
"And then," cried Mary breathlessly, "what did they do then?"
"And then," her father obediently continued, "the two doughty knights smote lustily with their swords. And each smote the other on the helmet and clove him to the middle. It was a fair battle and sightly."
But Mary's interest was unabated. "And then," she urged, "what did they do then?"