Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/129

112 uncle gave him a reproving look from the pulpit which he did not see.

The sermon was long and learned, and quite beyond the boys' understanding; and,—sad to say,—they were both asleep before it ended. Now, in the old days in England, when they had felt sleepy in church, it had been their pleasant privilege to put their heads against mother, and softly float away into dreamland. Therefore, Eppie sitting close to him in the Manse pew—it befell that Willie, growing drowsy, dropped his yellow head on her plump arm. But Eppie shook him, and set him in his place again. Two minutes after, he did the same thing—and so did she. But when he fell against her for the third time, she let him stay. And, presently, Roy's brown curls were resting on her other arm; and she sat so through the remainder of the service, her cheeks scarlet, staring defiantly past the gaping faces of the congregation.