"I happen to know, on excellent authority," said Mrs. Milligan, "that you slapped both of those helpless children and threw them down the front steps. Laura was so excited about it that she couldn't sleep and the poor baby cried half the night—we fear that he's injured internally."
"Nobody here injured him," said Mabel. "He always cries all the time, anyhow."
"We did put them out and for a very good reason," said Jean, speaking as respectfully as she could, "but we certainly didn't hurt either of them. I'm sorry if the baby isn't well, but I know it isn't our fault."
"Laura walked down the steps," said Bettie, "and the baby turned over and slid down on his stomach the way he always does."
"I should think that a minister's daughter," said Mrs, Milligan, with a withering glance at poor shrinking Bettie, "would scorn to tell such lies."
