After it had been gone eight days the article was returned. This made the little girl very sad, and she wept.
The other five aunts, and the uncles, and all the cousins were by this time interested, and they comforted her with many words, and censured her with a great many more, and gave her a great deal of good advice. But the little girl finally got so confused by the many conflicting opinions offered that she hardly knew what to do or say. One moment she would think she would write this and another that, and some of the time she declared that she would never write another line at all.
But one day a very pretty idea came into her mind all at once, and she did think it too sweet to be lost. So she wrote it down just as it came to her, and sent it away, and never told a soul a word about it.
By and by it was printed, and how happy the little girl was! She told nobody but her parents and her sisters this time, but all her friends saw her name in the paper, and they came running to her to talk about it.
"I saw your name in the paper," said Cousin Ada.
"Did you?" said the good little girl, pleasantly.
"Yes; an' Bert an' I know who you meant by 'The Old Bad Man.'"
"But I didn't mean anybody," explained she; "that was only a little story."
"Oh, we know you did. Mamma says it isn't a nice story at all, an' Mabelle says, 'Ugh!'"
It was no wonder that the little girl felt hurt at these words. And it was queer, but every time that any of the friends had any fault to find, or any help to give her, which was the same thing, of course, they began it by saying, "I saw your name in the paper."