"Are you going to let me have that bouquet-holder, Johnny Eastman?" continued Dotty; "'cause I'm going right out to tell my mother. She'll be so mortified she'll send you right home, if you hold it up to your nose, when you are nothing but a boy." "That's right, Dimple, run and tell." "No, I shan't tell if you'll give it to me. And you may have one of the roses in your button-hole, Johnny. That's the way the Pickings man had, that wrote Little Nell; father said so. There's a good boy, now!" Dotty dropped her voice to a milder key, and smiled as sweetly as the bitterness of her feelings would permit. She had set her heart on the toy, and her white slippers, and even her gold necklace, dwindled into nothing in comparison. "Whose mother owns this bouquet-holder, I'd like to know?" said Johnny, flourishing it above his head. "And whose father brought home the flowers from the green-house?" "Well, any way, Johnny, 'twas my aunt and uncle, you know; and they'd be willing, 'cause your mamma let me have her necklace 'thout my asking." "I can't help it if they're both as willing as two peas," cried Johnny. "I'm not willing myself, and that's enough." "O, what a boy! I was going to put some of my nightly blue sirreup on your hangerjif, and now I won't--see if I do!" "I don't want anybody's sirup," retorted Johnny; "'tic'ly such a cross party's as you are." "Johnny Eastman, you just stop murdering me." "Murdering you?" "Yes; 'he that hateth his brother.'" "I'm not your brother, I should hope." "Well, a cousin's just as bad." "No, not half so bad. I wouldn't be your brother if I had to be a beggar." "And I wouldn't let you be a brother, Johnny Eastman, not if I had to go and be a heathen." "O, what a Dotty!" "O, what a Johnny!" By this time the little bridesmaid's face was anything but pleasant to behold. Both her dimples were buried out of sight, and she had as many wrinkles in her forehead as grandma Head. Johnny danced about the room, holding before her eyes the bone of contention, then drawing it away again in the most provoking manner. "If you act so, Johnny Eastman, I won't have you for my bridegroom." "And I won't have you for my bride--so there!" The moment these words were spoken, the angry children were frightened. They had not intended to go so far. It had been their greatest pleasure for several weeks to think of "standing up" at a wedding; and they would neither of them have missed the honor on any account. But now, in their foolish strife, they had made it impossible to do the very thing they most desired to do. They had said the fatal words, and were both of them too proud to draw back. There was one comfort. "The wedding will be stopped," thought Dotty; "they can't be married 'thout Johnny and me."