I keep pegging away, but it don't seem to do much good;" and Dan looked discouraged.
"Yes, it does.

You don't say half so many bad words as you used to; and Aunt Jo is pleased, because she said it was a hard habit to break up." "Did she ?" and Dan cheered up a bit.
"You must put swearing away in your fault-drawer, and lock it up; that's the way I do with my badness." "What do you mean ?" asked Dan, looking as if he found Demi almost as amusing as a new sort of cockchafer or beetle.
"Well, it's one of my private plays, and I'll tell you, but I think you'll laugh at it," began Demi, glad to hold forth on this congenial subject.

"I play that my mind is a round room, and my soul is a little sort of creature with wings that lives in it.

The walls are full of shelves and drawers, and in them I keep my thoughts, and my goodness and badness, and all sorts of things.

The goods I keep where I can see them, and the bads I lock up tight, but they get out, and I have to keep putting them in and squeezing them down, they are so strong.