"How can you be so ridiculous!" said Sophy. "See, you have made the poor child cry." "With passion, my dear, which is a very wicked thing, as I am sure my Aunt Kezia would tell her. A little castor oil would--" "What is that about your Aunt Kezia?" came in another voice from the doorway. Oh, I was so glad to see her! "Hoity-toity! why, what is all this, girls?" said she, severely. "Hester, what are you doing? What is Cary crying for?" "Hatty is teasing her, Aunt," said Fanny. "She is always doing it, I think." "Give me that book, Hester," said my Aunt Kezia; and Hatty passed it to her without a word. "Now, whom does this book belong?" "It is mine, Aunt Kezia," I said, as well as my sobs would let me; "and Hatty has found it, and she is teasing me dreadfully about it." "What is it, my dear?" said my Aunt Kezia. "It is my diary, Aunt Kezia; and I did not want Hatty to get hold of it." "She says such things, Aunt Kezia, you can't imagine, about you and all of us." "I am sure I never said anything about you, Aunt Kezia," I sobbed. "If you did, my dear, I dare say it was nothing worse than all of you have thought in turn," saith my Aunt Kezia, drily. "Hester, you will go to bed as soon as the dark comes. Take your book, Cary; and remember, my dear, whenever you write in it again, that God is looking at every word you write." Hatty made a horrid face at me behind my Aunt Kezia's back; but I don't believe she really cared anything about it. She went to bed, of course; and it is dark now by half-past five. But she was not a bit daunted, for I heard her singing as she lay in bed, "Fair Rosalind, in woful wise," [Note 2.] and afterwards, "I ha'e nae kith, I ha'e nae kin." [Note 3.] If Father had heard that last, my Aunt Kezia would have had to forgive her and let her off the rest of her sentence. I have found a new hiding-place for my book, where I do not think Hatty will find it in a hurry. But when I sit down to write now, my Aunt Kezia's words come back to me with an awful sound. "God is looking at every word you write!" I suppose it is so: but somehow I never rightly took it in before. I hardly think I should have written some words if I had. Was that what my Aunt Kezia meant? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. This and similar expressions are Northern provincialisms. Note 2. "Fair Rosalind, in woful wise, Six hearts has bound in thrall; As yet she undetermined lies Which she her spouse shall call." Note 3. Perhaps the most plaintive and poetical of all the popular Jacobite ballads. CHAPTER TWO. TAWNY EYES. "She has two eyes so soft and brown, Take care! She gives a side-glance and looks down,-- Beware! Beware! Trust her not, She is fooling thee!" LONGFELLOW.