laugh on us this time."

"I?" exclaimed Annie indignantly: "no, indeed! That's some of Ford's
work, and Dabney's.--Mr. Kinzer, I'm ashamed of you."

Poor Dab!

He muttered something about those being all the vegetables he had, and
retreated to the kitchen.

Joe and Fuz, however, were not of the sort that take offence easily; and
they were shortly helping themselves quite liberally to lobster, cuffs
or no cuffs. That was all that was necessary to restore harmony at the
table, but Dab's plan for "punishing the Hart boys" was a complete
failure.

As Ford told him afterwards:

"Feel it? Not they. You might as well try to hurt a clam with a pin."

"And I hurt your sister's feelings instead of theirs," said Dab. "Well,
I'll never try any thing like it again. Anyhow, Joe and Fuz ain't
comfortable they ate too many roasted clams and a good deal too much
lobster."

There was a certain degree of consolation to be had from such a fact as
that.