“Me? Me? O, what a story!”

“Yes, you!”

“Why, it’s in your pocket, Dotty Dimple. I haven’t seen it.”

Dotty went on without pity.

“It was a present to me, you horrid Lina Rosenbug! Will you give it to me, now, this minute? This minute, Lina Rosenbug!”

“How can I give it to you, Dotty, when I haven’t got it myself?”

“O, but you have! I almost felt you when you did it.”

Lina clasped her hands together.

“I never, and I never, and I’ll keep saying it forever,” cried she, looking very pale.

“O, Lina Rosenbug, I knew, in the first place, I oughtn’t to sit with you, when you haven’t any mother to read the Bible to you—I mean she never does; but it’s wicked and against the rule to steal. I tell you so if you never heard of it before, and you’re an awful girl! I always knew it, ever since I went to your house and staid all night.”