I know _that_ wasn't true, for he didn't say anything about Adam and Eve.

What an awful boy!" "What did you say to Adolphus ?" said Mr.Parlin, still laughing.

"Hadn't you been putting on airs?
And wasn't that the reason he made sport of you ?" "I don't know what 'airs' are, papa." "Perhaps you told him, for instance, that you were travelling out West, and asked him if _he_ ever went so far as that." "Perhaps I did," stammered Dotty.
"And it is very likely you made the remark that you had the whole care of yourself, and know how to part your hair in the middle.

I did not listen; but it is possible you told him you could play on the piano." Dotty looked quite ashamed.
"This is what we call 'putting on airs.' Adolphus was at first rather quiet and unpretending.

Didn't you think he might be a little stupid?
And didn't you wish to give him the idea that you yourself were something of a fine lady ?" How very strange it was to Dotty that her father could read the secret thoughts which she herself could hardly have told! She felt supremely wretched, and crept into his bosom to hide her blushing face.
"I didn't say Adolphus did right to tease you," said Mr.Parlin, gently.
He thought the little girl's lesson had been quite severe enough; for, after all, she had done nothing very wrong: she had only been a little foolish.
"Upon my word, chincapin," said he, "we haven't opened that basket yet! What do you say to a lunch, with the Boston Journal for a table-cloth?
And here comes a boy with some apples." In two minutes Dotty had buried her chagrin in a sandwich.
And all the while the cars were racketing along towards Boston..