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Page 13
"What are you trying to say, child?" she asked hastily of Molly,
who was stammering out an incoherent speech. "Well, never mind;
whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it now. You run
right straight home; and if you want to come over to-morrow to see
how Marjorie is, you may, but I can't have you bothering around
here now. So run home."
And Molly ran home.
CHAPTER IV
A PAPER-DOLL HOUSE
The result of Marjorie's fall from the roof was a sprained ankle.
It wasn't a bad sprain, but the doctor said she must stay in bed
for several days.
"But I don't mind very much," said Marjorie, who persisted in
looking on the bright side of everything, "for it will give me a
chance to enjoy this beautiful room better. But, Grandma, I can't
quite make out whether I was disobedient or not. You never told me
not to slide down the roof, did you?"
"No, Marjorie; but your common-sense ought to have told you that.
I should have forbidden it if I had thought there was the
slightest danger of your doing such a thing. You really ought to
have known better."
Grandma's tone was severe, for though she was sorry for the child
she felt that Marjorie had done wrong, and ought to be reproved.
Marjorie's brow wrinkled in her efforts to think out the matter.
"Grandma," she said, "then must I obey every rule that you would
make if you thought of it, and how shall I know what they are?"
Grandma smiled. "As I tell you Midget, you must use your common-
sense and reason in such matters. If you make mistakes the
experience will help you to learn; but I am sure a child twelve
years old ought to know better than to slide down a steep barn
roof. But I suppose Molly put you up to it, and so it wasn't your
fault exactly."
"Molly did suggest it, Grandma, but that doesn't make her the one
to blame, for I didn't have to do as she said, did I?"
"No, Midge; and Molly has behaved very nicely about it. She came
over here, and confessed that she had been the ringleader in the
mischief, and said she was sorry for it. So you were both to
blame, but I think it has taught you a lesson, and I don't believe
you'll ever cut up that particular trick again. But you certainly
needn't be punished for it, for I think the consequences of having
to stay in bed for nearly a week will be punishment enough. So now
we're through with that part of the subject, and I'm going to do
all I can to make your imprisonment as easy for you as possible."
It was in the early morning that this conversation had taken
place, and Grandma had brought a basin of fresh, cool water and
bathed the little girl's face and hands, and had brushed out her
curls and tied them up with a pretty pink bow.
Then Jane came with a dainty tray, containing just the things
Marjorie liked best for breakfast, and adorned with a spray of
fresh roses. Grandma drew a table to the bedside and piled pillows
behind Marjorie's back until she was quite comfortable.
"I feel like a queen, Grandma," she said; "if this is what you
call punishment I don't mind it a bit."
"That's all very well for one day, but wait until you have been
here four or five days. You'll get tired of playing queen by that
time."
"Well, it's fun now, anyway," said Marjorie, as she ate
strawberries and cream with great relish.
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