Page:Along the Trail (1912).pdf/28

 to be repressed. "Oh, please wait," she cried. "Won't you tell me why you did that?"

The girl stopped and looked her over as if her ignorance were appalling. "Why, where have you been all your life?" she exclaimed crossly. "You ought to know that whenever you have to go back after anything, you must sit down and laugh, or She will punish you."

"But is She your mistress?" asked Marjorie.

"My mistress? Most certainly not!" exclaimed the girl. "I am my own mistress. I don't understand what you mean by saying a thing like that," and she walked angrily away.

Just then the girl with a torn dress called to Marjorie to know if she had gotten the pins, and Marjorie approached some of the other children to ask for them; but they all drew away from her as the first one had done. "No, no," they said, "we can't,—She would punish us,—everybody says so."