Page:Hegan Rice--Mrs Wiggs of the cabbage patch.djvu/142

  "Could you stand up on my soldiers, like the man at the show?" demanded Australia.

"I'd fall off," said Europena.

"’Fraid-cat!" taunted her sister, in disgust. "Do you reckon you could hol' the chair while I climbed up on the back?"

"It ain't got no bottom."

"Well, it don't need to have no bottom if I'm goin' to stand on its back," said Australia, sharply. Leaders of great enterprises must of necessity turn deaf ears to words of discouragement.

"You might git killed," persisted Europena.

"’T would n't matter," said Australia, loftily; "’t would n't be but the seventh time. I got three more times to die. 'Fore you was borned I was drowned out in the country, that was one time; then I fell in the ash-bar'l and