"I'll tell you how it was," she said. "You see, I was playing 'I spy' with the Hoyts, having the best time you ever heard of; and do you know, I can run as fast as Arthur and Clem, and almost as fast as Ray! We were playing the kind of 'I spy' where you have to hide, and then run in to goal when It is not looking. Did you ever play that way, Aunt Tom?" "No," murmured Miss Thomasine. "Do not stop for such questions," said Miss Middleton; "and do not address your aunt so disrespectfully." "Why, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, Aunt Adaline. I call her that because I love her, and I asked her last night, when she came to kiss me good-night, if I might call her 'Aunt Tom,'and if she would please call me 'Teddy' instead of hateful long Theodora, and she said I might, and she would. Of course I shouldn't dream of calling you 'Aunt Ad,' or Aunt Joanna 'Aunt Jo'; but Aunt Tom is different. She seems younger, and as if she might be sort of jolly if you would only let her, so that is the reason I asked her if she ever played that kind of 'I spy.' Of course I don't suppose the rest of you ever played 'I spy' at all." And she looked about upon the group with some scorn. Teddy spoke very rapidly, so this speech did not consume much time. "No, we never did," replied Miss Middleton, "and now we should be glad to hear the remainder of your story." "Oh yes, I'm going to tell you. I got away from the others somehow, and I thought I'd reach goal by a shorter way if I climbed the stone wall and went by the road a little way." "Theodora!" "What, Aunt Joanna?" "Surely you did not climb the stone wall?" "Why, yes; it is as easy as anything! I'm sure you could yourself, Aunt Joanna, just in that place. You put your foot right on a stone that juts out, and if I were there to give you a boost, you would go over as easy as anything." "Oh, my dear niece!" cried Miss Melissa; "I do hope, I really do hope that your aunt Joanna-- She could not-- I am sure--" "Melissa," exclaimed her sister, "if you think over the matter for a moment you will realize that no power on earth could tempt me to climb the stone wall." "I hoped not, but--" Awed by a wrathful glance from behind Miss Joanna's spectacles, Miss Melissa subsided, and again sniffed her salts. "Again I must ask you to continue," said Miss Middleton to her niece. "I suppose you fell, which caused your nose to bleed?"