"You admit that it was bad, then?"
"Why, certainly—but it isn't true. Only one door was nailed up—the wood-shed door."
"I do believe you're standing up for him. But I tell you, a boy that would nail up one door would nail up a hundred."
"He might if he had nails enough," said Ned, in a low voice.
"That's just it," said Aunt Mercy. "That fellow would nail up just as many doors as he could get nails for. I've no doubt it was only the givin' out of the nails that prevented him from going through every house in the neighborhood. Mark my words, he'll come to some bad end. Don't you have anything to do with him, Edmund Burton."
Ned said he thought it would be rather hard not to have anything to do with his own brother.
"Yes, I suppose so," said Aunt Mercy. "But do the best you can."
"Yes, Aunty, I'll do my best."
"Now tell me," said she, "about your muddle. Have you made a muddle yet?"
I thought Ned might have answered conscientiously that he had made a muddle. But he said: