like Nannie be anything but helpless before a brother whom she
adored, and a wonderful being like Elizabeth?--Elizabeth! who
always knew exactly what she wanted to do, and who instantly "got
mad," if you wouldn't say you'd do it, too; got mad, and then
repented, and hugged you and kissed you, and actually cried (or
got mad again), if you refused to accept as a sign of your
forgiveness her new slate-pencil, decorated with strips of red-
and-white paper just like a little barber's pole! No wonder
Nannie, timid and good-natured, was helpless before such a sweet,
furious little creature! Blair had more backbone than his sister,
but even he felt Elizabeth's heel upon his neck. David Richie, a
silent, candid, very stubborn small boy, was, after a momentary
struggle, as meek as the rest of them. Now, when she commanded
them all to climb, it was David who demurred, because, he said,
he spoke first for Indians tomahawking you in the back parlor.

"Very well!" said the despot; "play your old Indians! I'll never
speak to any of you again as long as I live!"

"I've got on my new pants," David objected.

"Take 'em off!" said Elizabeth. And there is no knowing what
might have happened if the decorous Nannie had not come to the
rescue.

"That's not proper to do out-of-doors; and Miss White says not to
say 'pants.'"

Elizabeth looked thoughtful. "Maybe it isn't proper," she
admitted; "but David, honest, I took a hate to being tommy-hocked