temper."




CHAPTER IV.

A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.


"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are
real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more."

These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she
opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little
girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in
pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house
from his next door neighbor.

"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I
am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it to the girls if I am. Fan
Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler
happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll
take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it
is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't,
Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat
because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to
give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went
off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can."