"If you don't sit still, you must be tied down," said Bessie.
" Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break mine
directly."

Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary
ligature. This preparation for bonds, and the additional ig-
nominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.

"Don't take them off," I cried; "I will not stir."

In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my
hands.

"Mind you don't," said Bessie; and when she had ascer-
tained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of
me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking
darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.

"She never did so before," at last said Bessie, turning to
the Abigail.

"But it was always in her," was the reply. "I've told
Missis often my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed
with me. She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl
of her age with so much cover."

Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she
said, --

"You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obliga-
tions to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you
off you would have to go to the poor-house."

I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to
me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of
the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become
a vague sing-song in my ear; very painful and crushing, but
only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in: --

"And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with
the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly
allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a
great deal of money and you will have none: it is your place
to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."

"What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no
harsh voice; "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then,
perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become pas-
sionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure."

"Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: He
might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then

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