"I should like to know how many of _our_ things have been carried over
to the Brown house garden," she said.
"We took some of the straw cushions and two or three cups that Mandy
said we might play with," replied Bess, watching her aunt's face
anxiously. There was another silence, during which Carl became
absorbed in a book and Louise gave her attention to Helen's dolls.
Then Aunt Zelie spoke:
"The more I think of this the more uncomfortable I feel about it."
"I can't see why," came from Carl.
"Because it seems to me such a lawless proceeding. Do you know that
there are people who say that no children were ever so lawless as
American children to-day?"
"That is poetry, auntie; you made a beautiful rhyme," laughed Louise.
But her aunt refused to smile.
"It is not poetry, but sad fact, I'm afraid. You may not have done
much actual harm, but you have shown no respect for other people's
property. You went into the Brown house garden without leave, and you
encouraged Ikey to carry off his grandmother's things without
permission. I have trusted you all summer--I thought I could; but this
makes me afraid that you ought to have someone with more experience to
watch over you. You know when I came back to you two years ago I
promised to stay so long as I could be a help to you, but--"
"Oh, Aunt Zelie! You do help us--don't go away!" cried Bess, clasping
her around the waist; Louise seized one of her hands tightly in both
her own, and Carl looked out the window with a flushed face.
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