first three promised to labor for and amuse the visiting baby for
two days a week, Minnie Smellie, who lived at some distance from
the Cobbs, making herself responsible for Saturday afternoons.

Minnie Smellie was not a general favorite among the Riverboro
girls, and it was only in an unprecedented burst of magnanimity
that they admitted her into the rites of fellowship, Rebecca
hugging herself secretly at the thought, that as Minnie gave only
the leisure time of one day a week, she could not be called a
"full" Aunt. There had been long and bitter feuds between the two
children during Rebecca's first summer in Riverboro, but since
Mrs. Smellie had told her daughter that one more quarrel would
invite a punishment so terrible that it could only be hinted at
vaguely, and Miss Miranda Sawyer had remarked that any niece of
hers who couldn't get along peaceable with the neighbors had
better go back to the seclusion of a farm where there weren't
any, hostilities had been veiled, and a suave and diplomatic
relationship had replaced the former one, which had been wholly
primitive, direct, and barbaric. Still, whenever Minnie Smellie,
flaxen-haired, pink-nosed, and ferret-eyed, indulged in fluent
conversation, Rebecca, remembering the old fairy story, could
always see toads hopping out of her mouth. It was really very
unpleasant, because Minnie could never see them herself; and what
was more amazing, Emma Jane perceived nothing of the sort, being
almost as blind, too, to the diamonds that fell continually from
Rebecca's lips; but Emma Jane's strong point was not her
imagination.

A shaky perambulator was found in Mrs. Perkins's wonderful attic;
shoes and stockings were furnished by Mrs. Robinson; Miss Jane