Nearing Shiny Wall
on Mother Carey's neck to be kissed and cried over for a full minute.
"I'll go to the doctor and have my ugly tooth pulled out," exclaimed Kathleen, wiping her eyes. "If it had n't been for that I never could have been so horrible!"
"That would be all very well for once," answered her mother with a tired smile, "but if you pluck out a supposed offending member every time you do something wrong, I fear you will not have many left when you are an old lady!"
"Mother!" said Kathleen, almost under her breath and not daring to look up, "could n't I stay at home from Charlestown and show you and Julia, here, how sorry I am?"
"Yes, let her, Aunt Margaret, and then I can have a chance to try too," pleaded Julia.
Had the heavens fallen? Had the Paragon, the Pink of Propriety and Perfection, confessed a fault? Had the heart of the smug one, the prig, melted, and did she feel at last her kinship to the Carey chickens? Had she suffered a real grievance, the first amongst numberless deeds of tenderness, and having resented it like an "old beast," forgiven it like a "new" one? It certainly seemed as if Mother Carey that week were at her
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