Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/213

Rh cracking a smile should be sending forth peal after peal of laughter. It was all she could do to keep back the tears.

Aunt Testy came in and with one glance at Rebecca she gave a deep chuckle.

"Good Gawd, honey baby, what yo' done did ter yo'se'f? You looks lak that there eat-'em-alive wil' man in the circus."

Rebecca took a tight hold on her emotions and to her mind came the thought: "Now is the time for me to show I can take a joke on myself! I have been laughing at people all the time, now I know how it is to be laughed at. I won't cry! I won't"

A little teary smile came to her countenance at her stern bidding and then she grinned a wee bit, and then the ridiculousness of the whole thing got the better of her and she, too, burst out laughing.

"Anyhow, they are going to forget to jump me for being late," she decided.

She reckoned without knowledge of the sense of duty on which her aunts prided themselves, however. As soon as they could control their laughter they started in on Rebecca.

"You are very late for dinner," admonished Myra.

"We ask very little of you in the way of duty