went back to the cheese-tub, muttering something about "Cain's being
raised the hull time."

At last, wholly exhausted and overcome with the heat Alice ceased
screaming, and with her eyes partly closed, she lay panting for
breath, while Mary, half out of her senses tipped over the dishwater,
broke the yellow pitcher, and spilled a pan of morning's milk.

"If there's a stick on the premises, I'll use it, or my name isn't
Grundy," said the enraged woman, at the same time starting for a clump
of alders which grew near the brook.

At this stage of affairs, Sal Furbush came dancing in curtseying,
making faces, and asking Mary if she thought "the temperature of the
kitchen conducive to health."

Mary instinctively drew nearer to her, as to a friend, and grasping
her dress, whispered, "Oh, Sally, Aunt Sally, don't let her whip me
for nothing," at the same time pointing towards Miss Grundy, who was
returning with an alder switch, stripping off its leaves as she came.

"Whip you? I guess she won't," said Sal, and planting herself in the
doorway as Miss Grundy came up, she asked, "Come you with hostile
intentions?"

"Out of my way," said Miss Grundy. "I'll teach, that upstart to break
things when she's mad." Pushing Sal aside, she entered the kitchen.

Mary retreated behind the cupboard door, and Miss Grundy was about to
follow her, when Sal, with a nimble bound, sprang upon her back, and