"Why, yes; it is as easy as anything! I'm sure you could yourself, Aunt Joanna, just in that place. You put your foot right on a stone that juts out, and if I were there to give you a boost, you would go over as easy as anything."
"Oh, my dear niece!" cried Miss Melissa; "I do hope, I really do hope that your aunt Joanna— She could not— I am sure—"
"Melissa," exclaimed her sister, "if you think over the matter for a moment you will realize that no power on earth could tempt me to climb the stone wall."
"I hoped not, but—"
Awed by a wrathful glance from behind Miss Joanna's spectacles, Miss Melissa subsided, and again sniffed her salts.
"Again I must ask you to continue," said Miss Middleton to her niece. "I suppose you fell, which caused your nose to bleed?"
"No, I didn't. I didn't fall at all. But who do you suppose I found in the road? That horrible Andy Morse! You know he is a great big fellow—bigger than Ray Hoyt. You've seen him about, probably. And he was throwing stones at that poor dear kitten." Theodora's eyes grew big, and her words came more slowly now, and with great emphasis. "He had it tied to a stump, and he was throwing stones at it, and the last one, just as I came up, killed the kitten." She paused, and looked about for sympathy. "I suppose you all feel just as I did," she said, presently. "As if your throats were all choked up, and you couldn't speak, and your hearts were going to fly right out of your bodies, and your heads were going to burst. That is the way I felt, and I am sure you would have done just as I did. I walked right up to that boy, and before he even knew I was there, I kicked him and scratched him, and banged my fist right in his eye. 'There, Andy Morse,' I said, 'that's what you get for stoning a kitten! How do you like that?' And he banged back, and that's what made my nose bleed. Then he ran off as hard as he Could. Great coward!" she added, contemptuously. "Think of stoning a kitten and being driven off by a girl! If there were not a commandment about killing people, I should really be almost sorry I hadn't killed him. Why isn't it just as wicked to kill a cat as to kill a bad boy, Aunt Adaline?"
"I—I really cannot answer such a question, Theodora. You do not realize what you are saying, I am sure. But you have done very wrong. I scarcely know how to express my feelings at such conduct. I beg you will not do so again. It was most unladylike, to say the least."
"But he was hurting that poor kitten, Aunt Adaline! How could I help it? Don't you think I did right, Aunt Tom?" she asked, turning in despair to her favorite aunt.
Miss Thomasine hesitated beneath the glare of eight sisterly eyes while they awaited her reply. Theodora hoped for support, but she was disappointed.