Mother Carey's Chickens
derly kept from her. Before she could answer Kathleen had swept past Julia and flung herself on the floor near her mother.
"Oh, mother, I can't say anything that will ever make you understand. Julia knows, she knows in her heart, what she said that provoked me! She does nothing but grumble about the work, and how few dresses we have, and what a drudge she is, and what common neighbors we have, and how Miss Tewksbury would pity her if she knew all, and how Uncle Allan would suffer if he could see his daughter living such a life! And this morning my head ached and my tooth ached and I was cross, and all at once something leaped out of my mouth!"
"Tell her what you said," urged Julia inexorably.
Sobs choked Kathleen's voice. "I said—I said—oh! how can I tell it! I said, if her father had n't lost so much of my father's and my mother's money we should n't have been so poor, any of us."
"Kathleen, how could you!" cried her mother.
If Julia wished to precipitate a tempest she had succeeded, and her face showed a certain sedate triumph.
"Oh! mother! don't give me up; don't give me up!" wailed Kathleen. "It was n't me that said
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