In spite of this clear explanation, Dotty did not understand any better
than before.

"It was the man that married my maw, only maw died, and then there was
another one, and she scolded and shook me."

"O, I s'pose you mean a father 'n mother; now I know."

"I want to tell you," pursued Emily, who loved to talk to strangers.
"She didn't care if I was blind; she used to shake me just the same. And
my paw had fits."

The other children, who had often heard this story, did not listen to it
with great interest, but went on with their various plays, leaving Emily
and Dotty standing together before Emily's baby-house.

"Yes, my paw had fits. I knew when they were coming, for I could smell
them in the bottle."

"Fits in a bottle!"

"It was something he drank out of a bottle that made him have the fits.
You are so little that you couldn't understand. And then he was cross.
And once he killed a man; but he didn't go to."

"Then he was guilty," said Dotty, in a solemn tone. "Did they take him to
the court-house and hang him?"

"No, of course they wouldn't hang _him_. They said it was the third