"Pshaw!" exclaimed Harty, impatiently, "you need not try so hard to be like Rosa: you can never hit it; you are as unlike as an acorn to an apple."
Lucy blushed, and was glad that Mrs. Maxwell spoke to her just then, for she was hurt by her brother's rudeness, and tempted to make a hasty reply.
Mrs. Maxwell wanted a certain apron for a pattern, and Lucy ran for it as soon as dinner was over, little thinking that even Mrs. Maxwell had learned something from Rosa, and had spoken to her at that moment to change the conversation.
Lucy really felt sorry to see Harty come into the dining-room after tea, as if he intended to spend the evening there, for the frown was on his brow. She was about to ask him why he did not go to see John Staples, when she remembered that Rosa had said that John was a bad companion, and that sisters ought to do everything to make their home pleasant, even when their brothers were cross and disagreeable; for boys were often led into temptation when out of the house, from which they were safe when at home.
With these thoughts in her mind Lucy laid aside a mark which she was working for Rosa, and which she was anxious to finish before her return, and went for the chequer-board.
"Don't you want to beat me?" she asked gently of Harty.
"It is so easy to do that, I don't care for it," was his reply.
The little girl was not discouraged; she took out her scrap-book and pictures, and the bottle of gum-arabic, and placed them on the table. She knew Harty would be sure to take an interest in some new engravings which one of the school-girls had that day given her.
A spirited engraving of a wild horse caught his eye, and he soon was engaged in looking over the addition to the old stock, and in advising Lucy where to paste them. One of the engravings he claimed as his own. Lucy knew perfectly that he was mistaken, but she gave it to him without a word; and when he laughed at her awkward way of using the brush, she joined in the laugh, holding up her sticky fingers in a comical way.
Presently Harty put his head on the table, and fell fast asleep.