Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/171

 Rh  retorted Laura, tearing the disfigured photograph in two and scornfully tossing the pieces into a corner. "Such a fuss about a skinny old maid's picture."

"You shan't stay one instant longer," cried indignant Jean, stepping determinedly behind Laura, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders and making a sudden run for the door. "There! You're out. Don't you ever attempt to come in again."

Bettie, grasping the situation, and the Milligan baby at the same time, promptly set the boy outside. She had handled him with the utmost gentleness, but he always roared if anyone touched him, and he roared now.

"Yah!" yelled Laura, "I'll tell my mother you pinched him—slapped him, too."

"Sapped him, too," wailed the baby.

"Well," said Jean, turning the key in the lock, "we'll have to keep the door locked after this. Mercy! I never behaved so dreadfully to anybody before and I hope I'll never have to again."