48 THE COUSINS.

idea, and she would have addressed her question
to Lucy, had she not feared to excite that taunting
laugh which always made her so angry. Lucy
left the room in a few minutes, and she then ap-
plied to Charles.

“« What are you cutting, Charles?”

“TI am making a kite, Cousin Mary; did you
ever see a kite sailing up, up as high as the
clouds ?”

“No, Charley; but I thought Lucy said you
were making a mouse.”

‘“‘ Well, she did say I was making a muss.”

“JT am sure that kite does not look like our
mice.”

“4 mice!” said Charley, who did not very
well understand the distinctions of number, or of
different orders of animals ; ‘oh, no, she did not
mean @ mice ; mices are little rats, are they not?”

“Well, what did she mean?” asked Mary, more
confused than ever, and scarcely taking time, from
her inquiries, to laugh at the blunders of Charles.

‘Oh, she meant a—a muss; Cousin Mary, you
must ask papa; he will tell you all about it.”

And Mary did ask her uncle in the evening,