“Who put such a queer notion as that in your head, Miss Dotty?”
“O, heard my mamma say she ate some once, when she was a little girl, and it wrinkled her mouth all up, so she couldn’t talk; but don’t you tell.”
“No, I won’t tell; but if that is what you want it for, I shan’t dare give you so much; it might make you sick. Here’s a bit as big as a pea; it’s all you ought to have, Miss Dotty.”
The little girl put the precious morsel in her pocket, intending to eat it the last thing before she entered the school-room.
CHAPTER III.
DOING A LIE.
The alum gave Dotty’s mouth a puckery sensation; though, to her disappointment, she felt as much like talking as ever.
“But, Tate,” said she, firmly, “I’m going to be good all day, as hard as I can; and I devise you not to try to make me speak.”
This was before school began, and shortly afterwards Tate forgot the admonition, and fell to whispering, just as usual.