redoubled.

"Oh! isn't it dreadful?" she demanded. "I shall die, I know I shall.
Oh! why did pa make me come?"

"Now, Lilly, don't be an idiot," said the unsympathizing Rose. Then
she sat down and proceeded to make a series of the most grotesque
faces, winking her eyes and twinkling her fingers round the head of
"Niobe," as she called Lilly, till the other girls were in fits of
laughter, and Niobe, though she shrugged her shoulders pettishly and
said, "Don't be so ridiculous, Rose Red," was forced to give way.
First she smiled, then a laugh was heard; afterward she announced
that she felt better.

"That's right, Niobe," said Rose. "Wash your face now, and get ready
for tea, for the bell is just going to ring. As for you, Annie, you
might as well put your drawers in order," with a wicked wink. Annie
hurried away with a laugh, which she tried in vain to hide.

"You heartless creature!" cried the exasperated Lilly. "I believe
you're made of marble; you haven't one bit of feeling. Nor you
either, Katy. You haven't cried a drop."

"Given this problem," said the provoking Rose: "when the nose without
is as red as a lobster, what must be the temperature of the heart
within, and _vice versa?_"

The tea-bell rang just in time to avert a fresh flood of tears from
Lilly. She brushed her hair in angry haste, and they all hurried
down by a side staircase which, as Rose explained, the school-girls