"Hush!" replied Katy; "grandma did it. She talked very bad about mamma to grandpa, and I started to go up into my little room, because, you know, I _couldn't_ bear to hear it; and she called to me, and said, 'Katy, what are you leaving the room for?' and you know, Nettie, mamma teaches us always to tell the truth, so I said, 'because I cannot bear to stay and hear you say what is not true about my mamma.' And then grandma threw down her knitting, seized me by the arm, and set me down, oh, _so_ hard, on a chair; and said, 'but you _shall_ hear it.' Then, oh, Nettie, I _could not_ hear it, so I put my fingers in both ears; and then she beat me, and left that place on my arm, and held both my hands while she made me listen." During this recital, Nettie's eyes glowed like living coals. When Katy concluded, she clenched her little fists, and said: "Katy, why didn't you strike her?" Katy shook her head, and said in a low tone, "Oh, Nettie, she would have killed me! When she got angry she looked just like that picture of Satan we saw once in the shop window." "Katy, I _must_ do something to her," said Nettie, closing her teeth together, and planting her tiny foot firmly upon the floor; "she _shan't_ talk so about mamma. Oh, if I was only a big woman!" "I suppose we must _forgive_ her," said Katy thoughtfully. "_I_ won't," said the impulsive little Nettie, "never--never--never." "Then you cannot say your prayers," said the wise little Katy; "'forgive us, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.'" "What a pity!" exclaimed the orthodox Nettie; "don't you wish that hadn't been put in? What _shall_ we do, Katy?" "Nettie," said her mother, who had approached unnoticed, "what did you mean when you said just now, that you wished you were a big woman?" Nettie hung her head for a minute, and twisted the corner of her apron irresolutely; at last she replied with a sudden effort, "you won't love me, mamma, but I will tell you; I wanted to cut grandma's head off." Little Katy laughed outright, as the idea of this Lilliputian combatant presented itself. Ruth looked serious. "That is not right, Nettie," said she; "your grandmother is an unhappy, miserable old woman. She has punished herself worse than anybody else could punish her. She is more miserable than ever now, because I have earned money to support you and Katy. She _might_ have made us all love her, and help to make her old age cheerful; but now, unless she repents, she will live miserably, and die forsaken, for nobody can love her with such a temper. This is a dreadful old age, Nettie!" "I _think_ I'll forgive her," said Nettie, jumping into her mother's lap; "but I hope I shan't ever hear her say anything against you, mother. I'm glad I wasn't Katy. Didn't you ever wish, Katy, that she might fall down stairs and break her neck, or catch a fever, or something?"