"There, now, auntie," said Susy, "don't you s'pose we know they're only play-stories? Just as if we hadn't a speck of sense!"
"Well, let me see," said aunt Madge, covering her eyes with her fingers. "Once upon a time when the moon was full——"
"Full of what?" said Prudy, who was leaning on the arm of her auntie's chair, and peeping up into her face, "full of fairies?"
"When the moon was round, my child," said auntie, stroking the little one's hair. "But wait. I'll tell a story Prudy can understand—wouldn't you, my dears? When I was a little girl——"
Aunt Madge telling a Story. [Page 90 .]
"That's right," cried the children. "O, tell about that."
"Was you about as big as me?" said Prudy, "and was your name little Madge?"
"Yes, they called me little Madge sometimes, and sometimes Maggie. When I was about as old as our Susy, I happened to go into the back-room one day, and saw uncle Edward's hatchet lying on the meat-block. I knew I had no right to touch it, but it came into my head that I would try to break open the clams. The hatchet, instead of cracking the shells, came down with full force on my foot! I had on thick boots, but it cut through my right boot deep into the bone. O, how I screamed!"