Just then Susy came, and whispered a few words in her ear.
"No, I won't be hung! I'm sure I won't be hung!" cried Dotty, who was by this time very much out of sorts.
"O, Dotty! what makes you act so? We've got a charade, 'Crisis.' Half of us are going to play it for the other half to guess. We only want to weigh you, with a yardstick through an old shawl; that's all. Come, let us pin you up; there's a goody girl."
"I don't want to be a goody girl. I'm too big to be goody. If you want a baby to make believe with, why don't you take Flyaway? She's littler than me."
"There, there!" said Prudy, coming to the rescue, "you needn't do a single thing, Dotty, if you don't want to. We didn't know but you'd like to play be weighed, you can squeal so be-you-tifully!"
"I know I can squeal just like a rubber doll; but s'posin' they should let me fall off the yardstick—where'd I go to then?"
"O, but they wouldn't!"
"Of course they would, Prudy Parlin. And I should fall right into the tolly-blow—that's where I should fall to."
"O, pshaw!" exclaimed Percy, coming into the corner where his cousins stood; "if cousin Dimple has got into one of her contrary fits, it's of no use teasing. You might as well try to move the side of the house."
This cutting speech was all that was needed to complete Dotty's ill humor. Did she remember any longer her promise not to get angry, but to swallow her temper right down? No, indeed; she forgot everything but her own self-will.