got any mam—ma-a!”
“Oh, Lottie!” screamed Miss Amelia. “Do stop, darling! Don’t cry! Please don’t!”
“Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” Lottle howled tempestuously. “Haven’t- -got—any—mam—ma-a!”
“She ought to be whipped,” Miss Minchin proclaimed. “You SHALL be whipped, you naughty child!”
Lottle wailed more loudly than ever. Miss Amelia began to cry. Miss Minchin’s voice rose until it almost thundered, then suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent indignation and flounced out of the room, leaving
red in her awed amazement. Having wept hopeless tears for weeks in her efforts to remember that “la mere” meant “the mother,” and “le pere,” “the father,”— when one spoke sensible English—it was almost too much for her suddenly to find herself listening to a child her own age who seemed not only quite