them, wholly unconscious that they had been in any peril whatsoever.

"And Black-and-white would have killed them, every one, if she had had the
chance," thought Tattine; "oh, if I only knew how to teach her a lesson!"



CHAPTER V. THE KIRKS AT HOME

Barney the donkey was harnessed, and Tattine sat in the little donkey-cart
waiting, and as she waited she was saying aloud, "What, Grandma Luty? Yes,
Grandma Luty. No, Grandma Luty. What did you say, Grandma Luty?" and this she
said in the most polite little tone imaginable. Meantime Rudolph and Mabel,
discovering that Tattine did not see them, came stealing along under cover of
the apple-trees.

"Whatever is Tattine doing, talking to herself like that?" whispered Mabel,
and then they came near enugh to hear what she was saying.

"She's out of her head," said Rudolph, wh‚n they had listened'some moments,
and then Tattine turned round and saw them.

"No, I'm not out of my head at all," she laughed; "I was just practicing a
little while I waited for you."

"Practicing your GRANDMOTHER," which as you have observed was a pet expression
with Rudolph, whenever he wished to intimate that he considered your remarks
to be simply absurd.

"Yes, that's exactly it," Tattine answered good-naturedly. "I am practicing my