With that Annie Stone went her way, with soft flounces of her short,
stout body, and Maria was left. She was still defiant; her blood was
up. "Sister's little honey love," she said to the baby, in a tone so
loud that Annie Stone must have heard. "Were folks that didn't have
anything but naughty little brothers jealous of her?" Annie Stone
had, in fact, a notorious little brother, who at the early age of
seven was the terror of his sisters and all law-abiding citizens; but
Annie Stone was not easily touched.

"Sister's little honey love," she shouted back, turning a malignant
face over her shoulder. She had that very morning had a hand-to-hand
fight with her naughty little brother, and finally come out
victorious, by forcing him to the ground and sitting on him until he
said he was sorry. It was not very reasonable that she should be at
all sensitive with regard to him.

After Annie Stone had gone out of sight, Maria went around to the
front of the little carriage, adjusted the white fur rug carefully,
secured a tiny, white mitten on one of the baby's hands, and
whispered to the baby alone. "You _are_ sister's little honey love,
aren't you, precious?" and the baby smiled that entrancing smile of
honesty and innocence which sent the dimples spreading to the lace
frill of her cap, and reached out her arms, thereby displacing both
mittens, which Maria adjusted; then, after a fervent kiss, she went
her way.

However, she was not that afternoon to proceed on her way long
uninterrupted. For some time Josephine, the nurse-girl, had either
been growing jealous, or chocolates were palling upon her. Josephine
had also found her own home locked up, and the key nowhere in