promise you, I won't so much as speak, if you'll let me stay; but
it's awfully dull doing nothing, and mother's bound I shan't play
ball. You wouldn't catch me here, if I could."

"Ungrateful wretch!" exclaimed Polly, while Jean added,--

"No danger of your saying anything! You'll be sound asleep before
we've read a page."

"What's the use of reading it, then?" was Alan's pertinent
question.

"I'm sure I don't know," answered Florence. "It's one of Polly's
ideas, or rather, Aunt Jane's."

"Aunt Jane ought to be ganched!" remarked Alan, with calm
disrespect; for Polly made no secret of Aunt Jane's eccentricities,
and they were a common subject of discussion among the V.

"I know it," confessed Polly, filled with shame at the thought of
having such a relative.

"Come, Polly, what is the use of reading this poky old book?"
urged Molly. "'T isn't doing any of us the least bit of good. I've
listened just as hard as I could, and I'm sure I haven't any idea
what it's all about, it's told in such a queer way."

Molly's use of the word "queer" said more than a dozen lesser
adjectives. She had a singularly expressive manner of drawing it
out, that threw untold meaning into its simple form. Alan used to