Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag Vol. 1

no greater joy at that period. As the prejudices of society forbid this
sport, I revenged myself by driving hoop all around the mall without
stopping, which the boys could not do.

I can remember certain happy evenings, when we snuggled in sofa corners
and planned tricks and ate stolen goodies, and sometimes Frank would put
his curly head in my lap and let me stroke it when he was tired. What
the girls did I don't recollect; their domestic plays were not to my
taste, and the only figure that stands out from the dimness of the past
is that jolly boy with a twinkling eye. This memory would be quite
radiant but for one sad thing--a deed that cut me to the soul then, and
which I have never quite forgiven in all these years.

On one occasion I did something very naughty, and when called up for
judgment fled to the dining-room, locked the door, and from my
stronghold defied the whole world. I could have made my own terms, for
it was near dinner time and the family must eat; but, alas for the
treachery of the human heart! Frank betrayed me. He climbed in at the
window, unlocked the door, and delivered me up to the foe. Nay, he even
defended the base act, and helped bear the struggling culprit to