"Now really, mother, if I were in Mag's place, I wouldn't please you
enough to say Mrs. Hamilton; I'd always call you Mrs. Carter," said
Lenora.

"How absurd!" was the reply; and Lenora continued:

"I know it's absurd, but I'd do it; though if she does, I, as the
dutiful child of a most worthy parent, shall feel compelled to resent
the insult by calling her father _Mr. Carter_!"

By this time Mrs. Carter was needed in the kitchen; so, leaving
Lenora, who at once was the pest and torment of her mother's life, we
will go into the village and see what effect the approaching nuptials
was producing. It was now generally known that the "lady from the
East" who had been "rocked in Mrs. Carter's cradle," was none other
than Mrs. Carter herself, and many were the reproving looks which the
people had cast toward Lenora for the trick she had put upon them. The
little hussy only laughed at them good-humoredly, telling them they
were angry because she had cheated them out of five months' gossip,
and that if her mother could have had her way, she would have sent the
news to the _Herald_ and had it inserted under the head of "Awful
Catastrophe!" Thus Mrs. Carter was exonerated from all blame; but many
a wise old lady shook her head, saying, "How strange that so fine a
woman as Mrs. Carter should have such a reprobate of a daughter."

When, this remark came to Lenora's ears she cut numerous flourishes,
which ended in the upsetting of a bowl of starch on her mother's new
black silk; then dancing before the highly indignant lady, she said,
"Perhaps if they knew what a scapegrace you represent my father to
have been, and how you whipped me once to make me say I saw him strike