"Write out fifty times 'I must not get excited before mealtime,' Don't leave the house until you have done it."
"Very well, Daddy."
Mr. Bedelle went to his easy-chair on the back porch and began to fan himself. Tootsie, staring at the phonograph, began seriously to consider. Her suspicions were aroused and her first suspicion was the instinctive one of sister to sister.
"Good gracious! I believe the child thinks I did it," said Clara, at luncheon, after Tootsie's stare had remained in fixed accusation upon her.
"Not a word! Not another word about that phonograph," said Mr. Bedelle wrathfully, "If this whole family has got to be upset every time I sit down to the table, I will have the whole thing made into mincemeat."
"Well, it's my phonograph," said Tootsie sullenly, and immediately departed for her room—by request.
For two days the phonograph remained quiescent, but about this time Miss Clara Bedelle announced that some one had been tampering with her figure.
"Your figure, Clara? How shocking!" said the older brother.
"My dressmaker's figure, and what's more, some one," said Clara, looking hard at Tootsie, "Some one has been in my closet and disturbed my dresses!"
"How very strange," said Tootsie sarcastically. "Are you sure it isn't your imagination—child?"