you; and you can thrash me instead, ever so hard."

It was her last effort, her final hope, and she bit her poor
quivering lip till it bled while she waited for his answer.

"Let her stay--oh! do letter stay, we'll be good always," came
in a chorus from the veranda. And, "Let her stay, John, PLEASE!"
Esther called in a tone as entreating as any of the children.

But the Captain sprang into the dogcart and seized the reins from
Pat in a burst of anger.

"I think you're all demented!" he cried. "She's going to a
thoroughly good home, I've paid a quarter in advance already,
and I can assure you good people I'm not going to waste it."

He gave the horse a smart touch with the whip, and in a minute
the dogcart had flashed out of the gate, and the small, unhappy
face was lost to sight.



CHAPTER VI The Sweetness of Sweet Sixteen

"She is not yet so old
But she may learn: happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn."


Meg's hair had always been pretty, but during the last two months