sweeping the front steps when he came and leaned over the fence and
called her.

She shouldered the broom, as she had seen men shoulder implements of
labor,--hoes, rakes, etc.,--and tramped toward him. Mr. John watched
her, with an expression of disgust under his mustache.

"Well, Bob," he said, "I'm glad to see you out so early. Form good
habits before you're grown, and when you come to manhood you'll make
money by it. Where are your Bloomers to-day? It isn't possible your
mind's not made up to them yet?"

There was something in Mr. John's tone and manner which did not seem
quite courteous to Mollie; but she had hardly hung her head when he
began to talk in his old half-fatherly, half-brotherly fashion; and
then, in the lively conversation, she found a chance to introduce
Thomas. Mr. John gave her a long, solemn, searching look.

"Mollie," he said, "I am very much afraid you will never succeed as a
boy. It seems to me that even an ordinarily masculine girl of your
age would have been clear-headed enough to see the absurdity of your
little farce. It is nothing but a farce, mere babyishness. You have
been playing with yourself and with your doll. No boy could have done
it."

There was a short pause; then Mollie's voice piped out into a humble
question as to what course a boy would have pursued in the matter.

"Why, that is clear enough," said Mr. John. "If you want to do what a
boy would do, dispose of the doll on the shortest notice. Get it out