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"No," returned Miss Mehitable, acidly; "I am not"

"Aren't you?" asked Araminta, casually, too happy to be deeply concerned about anybody else; "hat's wrong?"

"I should think, Araminta Lee, that you 'd be the last one on earth to ask what's wrong!" The flood gates were open now "Wasn't it only yesterday that you broke away from all restraint and refused to make any more quilts? Didn't you put on your best dress in the afternoon when 't want Sunday and I hadn't told you that you could? Didn't you pick a rose and stick it into your hair, and have I ever allowed you to pick a flower on the place, to say nothing of doing anything so foolish as to put it in your hair? Flowers and hair don't go together"

"There's hair in the parlour," objected Araminta, frivolously, " as you had them made out of dead people's hair, I'd put some roses in mine, nohile I'm alive"

Miss Mehitable compressed her lips sternly and went on

"Didn't you take a rug out of the parlour last night and spread it on the porch, and have I ever had rugs outdoor except when they was being beat? And didn't you sit down on the front porch, where I've never allowed you to sit, it not beingfemale to sit outside of her house?"

"Yes," ads, and I put ht ot that"

"No, I didn't," denied Miss Mehitable, vigorously; "I was coo up to Miss Evelina's without asking o bareheaded, as I've never allowed you to do?"

"Yes," laughed Araminta, "I did"

"After I went away," pursued Miss Mehitable, swiftly approaching her clio up to Doctor Dexter's like a shao to Doctor Dexter's, that's what I am"

"You went there to see Doctor Ralph Dexter, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," sang Araminta, "and oh, Aunt Hitty, he was there! He was there!"

"Ain't I told you," demanded Miss Mehitable, "how one woot burnt so awful that she has to wear a veil all the rest of her life?"

"Yes, you told et burned"

"Araht to hell, just as fast as you can get there Perdition is yawning at your feet Didn't that black play-doctor come home with you?"