Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/75

Rh give references and prove that he is a good person to cats or dogs and will be kind to it. Anybody that gives me a home has got to give references."

Major Taylor burst out laughing. His daughters looked shocked and Spottswood listened in amazement to the baiting his father was getting from this little waif.

Philip Bolling smiled. He remembered what the little girl had told him of the rules her Daddy had made her obey, one of them not to sass old folks until they first sassed her.

The little girl smiled, a bit uncertainly.

"It is funny, isn't it?" Now Rebecca laughed, too. "The joke's on me. I can see it. My Daddy, that is my last stepfather, used to tell me if you could see that the joke was on you and laugh at it, before long you could turn it on the other fellow. I'll tell you good-bye," and she gave a sweeping bow, taking in all the group on the porch.

"Where are you going?" asked Major Taylor.

"I am not sure what my movements will be for the next few days," she answered with a primness copied from Mrs. O'Shea, "but for the time being I am going to find Aunt Pearly Gates' house, as I am anxious to see whether