Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/132

114 There was the midnight robber at his fell work! The big cat peacefully gnawing the cold chicken, and knocking about the treasured crusts dragged from the luncheon-basket carefully packed for an early start.

"Wake and behold the ruin your pet has made!"

"We might be murdered or carried off a dozen times over without her knowing it. Here's a nice duenna!"

And the indignant ladies shook, pinched, and shouted till the hapless sleeper opened one eye, and wrathfully demanded what the matter was. They told her with eloquent brevity, but instead of praising their prowess, and thanking them with fervor, the ungrateful woman shut her eye again, merely saying with drowsy irascibility,—

"You told me to go to sleep, and I went; next time fight it out among yourselves, but don't wake me."

"Throw the cat out of window and go to bed, Mat," and Amanda uncocked her pistol with the resignation of one who had learned not to expect gratitude in this world.