Mrs.Allen was so amused that she could scarcely sing Fly's by-low hymn:--- "Sleep, little one, like a lamb in the fold.
Shut from the tempest, safe from the cold; Sleep, little one, like a star in the sky, Wrapped in a cloud, while the storm-wind sweeps by." It was quite as hard to keep a grave face when Fly added to her evening prayer the petition,-- "God f'give me speakin' a naughty word _'fore Miss Perdigoff_." "What naughty word, darling ?" "Hunkydory," replied Fly, with a deep sense of guilt.

Not that she thought it wrong to use a coarse word, only wrong to use it "'fore Miss Perdigoff." Aunt Madge entered into a short explanation of the true nature of right and wrong; but her words were thrown away, for that "curly dog" filled every nook and corner of Fly's little mind..