Presently she went down stairs, and left the little girls together.

"Good!" said Lina, in a low voice. "She's gone; now we'll play."

"But you can't knit if you play, Lina. Tell me where you hided my hat,
'cause I want to go home."

"You shan't go home till after supper, you little darling Dotty Dimple."

"O, but I must go, for my mother doesn't know where I am," said Dotty, in
a dreary tone. She had no longer any curiosity regarding Jewish suppers;
all she wanted was the liberty to get away. But it is always easier to
fall into a trap than to get out of it. Mandoline would not produce the
missing hat, and it was no light matter for Dotty to go down stairs,
among the noisy, quarrelsome children, and beg the severe Mrs. Rosenberg
to take her part. If she did so, perhaps the woman would pelt her with
the steel thimble. Perhaps, too, she would say Mandoline might keep the
hat. So Dotty played "synagogue," and all the while the sun was dropping
down, down the sky, as if it had a leaden weight attached to it, to make
it go faster.




CHAPTER VI.

A STRANGE VISIT.


The same warfare of words continued to come up from the kitchen, and