"Yes; and then I'll learn to make verses like yours. Can you make poetry too, Aunt Dorinda?" "No," said Miss Dorinda, simply; "my talent is for painting." "Oh, is it? And do you paint pictures? And will you teach me how? I've always wanted to learn to paint, and I'm very industrious. I can play on the piano like a house afire." "Sister Lavinia used to play the piano very prettily," said Miss Dorinda; "doubtless you have inherited her talent." "Yes, I think I have. Shall I play for you now?" "No!" said Miss Priscilla, decidedly; "the piano has never been touched since your mother left us, and it never shall be opened again with my consent." "Aunty, did my mamma look like you? It seems funny, doesn't it? but I've never seen a picture of my mamma, and papa never told me anything about her. I didn't know papa very well, either,--he was always going off on long journeys, and I stayed with nurse. What was my mamma like, aunty?" "She was a beautiful blonde, with rosy, plump cheeks. You are not a bit like her." "No, I should say not,"--and Ladybird laughed merrily,--"with my straight black hair and thin white face. Papa used to call me a black-and-white ghost. But after I live here awhile, I expect I'll get plump and rosy; though I don't suppose anything will ever make my hair curl." "But you're _not_ going to live here; you're going away this morning." "Now, Aunt Priscilla," said Ladybird, with an air of being kind but firm, "this joke has gone far enough. I'm going to stay here because it's my home, and I have no other. I belong to you and Aunt Dorinda, because I have no other relatives. I hope you'll learn to like me; but if not, I have to stay here, all the same. People have to live where their homes are, and so we'll consider the matter settled." "Indeed, miss, we'll consider no such thing! What do you mean by defying me in my own house? I say you are to go, and go you shall. Here comes Mr. Marks up the road now, in his wagon. Get that worthless dog of yours, and prepare to go at once." Miss Priscilla looked at the little girl with flashing eyes, and Ladybird, who had risen from her stool, looked back at her aunt, smiling and unalarmed. Then the child gave a quick glance round the room. The windows were high from the ground, and there was but one door, which led to the hall. Like a flash, Ladybird flew out through the door, shut it behind her, and turned the key in the lock, making the Misses Flint her prisoners. She went out on the front veranda just as Mr. Marks drove up with her trunks in his wagon. "Good morning!" she said brightly. "Will you please set the boxes out on the porch? Oh, here is Matthew; he will help you. Now, if you please, will you carry them up-stairs? I'll show you where to put them." She ran up the broad staircase; the men followed; and finally her three trunks were safely lodged in the room she had occupied the night before, and which she looked upon as her own.