“Wait a minute, Leonora, till we find out what this means,” said she, surprised to see her usually quiet little sister in this wild state. “Tell me all about it, dear.”
Thus encouraged, Ethel broke forth indignantly, “Kittyleen is very disagreeable! And besides, she knocked me down!”
Fanny began to laugh. “Oh, what a Kittyleen!”
“Hush, Fan,” said Mary, warningly, drawing up her mouth like grandma’s silk “work-pocket.” “It doesn’t seem possible, Ethel. I never heard of Kittyleen’s behaving so before. What had you done to vex her?”
“I—I—knocked her down—first,” confessed Ethel, in low, faltering tones.
“Fanny Townsend, do be quiet. I have the care of this child to-day. Ethel, where is Kittyleen?”
“Ah. Ethel, Ethel, it will be my duty to punish you. Fanny, _can_ you be quiet?”
“_You_ punish her? Oh dear, that’s too funny!”
“Yes, I have full authority to punish her if I choose,” said Mary, elevating her chin.
She was subject to little attacks of dignity; but instead of being duly impressed, Fanny only laughed the more, while shamefaced little Ethel hid her head and felt that she was trifled with.
“May I ask what amuses you, Miss Townsend?” said Mary, with increased dignity.
“Oh don’t, oh dear, what shall I do? You’re so queer, Flaxie Frizzle!”
“Well, if you go on in this way, I shall be obliged to take Ethel out of the room. Have you no judgment _at all_, Fanny Townsend?”
“Oh dear, oh dear, I shall die laughing! shall have to go home! If you could see just how you look, Flaxie Frizzle! _Good_-by. I _can’t_ help it,” said Fanny, reeling out of the door.
Mary drew a long sigh. “Now come to me, Ethel. This is a dreadful thing, and you’re a perfectly awful child; but it will not do to speak to mother about it, when she has pneumonia, and a blister on the chest. She said _I_ must take care of you.”
Ethel did not stir. Mary paused and gazed reproachfully across the room at her, not knowing in the least what to say next. She had never before undertaken a case of discipline, and rather wondered why it should be required of her now. But she had been given “full authority over the children,” and what did that mean if she was not to punish them when they did wrong?
To be sure Julia’s headache might be over to-morrow, and Julia could then attend to Ethel; but Mary was quite sure it would not do to wait an hour or a minute; the case must be attended to _now_. “It is my duty, and I will not shrink from it. I’ll try to act exactly as mamma always does,—not harsh, but sad and gentle,—Ethel, my child, come here.”