Mrs. Parlin said Dotty might go just once, and see how she liked it. So, the next afternoon, she set out with Tate for “the dear little school.” As they skipped along swinging each other by the hand, they were met by Johnny. Dotty began to hurry.
“Where are you going, Dot?”
“Going away.”
“You don’t say! When you coming back?”
“When I return!”
After which pert reply Dotty tossed her head, and swung Tate along upon the full run.
A flash of anger rose to Johnny’s eyes. He and his little cousin had not had a quarrel since the Crystal Wedding, and he was starting for his aunt Mary’s, to make an afternoon visit. Dotty saw the flash, and it set her thinking.
“I wouldn’t want to go with me and Tate to where I wasn’t wanted! But Johnny does! But, then, he said he wouldn’t quarrel, ’thout I begun it, and I won’t begin it. I’ll stop throwing my head back, ’cause that always makes the tempers come.”
She was learning to watch the lion in her bosom. When he began to shake his mane, she said, “Lie down, sir.” It was the only way; after he had really got upon his feet, and begun to rage, Dotty couldn’t stop him.