The great misery of Daisy's life was this,--that people were always taking her for a boy, a mistake which she considered both unnatural and insulting, and which she always resented with all her little might.
Nellie found her sitting at the head of the piazza steps, crying aloud, with her straw hat pressed over her face by both hands.
"What's the matter, Daisy?" asked her sister.
"Oh! such a wicked butcher-man came to my house," answered Daisy, in smothered tones from beneath her hat.
"What did he do? What makes him wicked?" asked Nellie.
"He sweared at me," moaned Daisy; "oh! he sweared dreadful at me."
"Yes," said Daisy, removing the hat so far that she was able to peep out with one eye at her sister, "he did. He called me 'Bub,' and I'm not a bub, now."
Nellie was far from wishing to wound Daisy's feelings afresh; but this mild specimen of _swearing_ struck her as so intensely funny that she could not keep back a peal of laughter,--a peal so merry and hearty that it rejoiced her mother's heart, who had not heard Nellie laugh like that for several weeks.
Daisy's tears redoubled at this. She had expected sympathy and indignation from Nellie, and here she was actually laughing.
"You oughtn't to laugh," she said resentfully; "it is very naughty to swear bad names at little girls, and I shan't eat the meat that bad butcher-man brought."
Nellie sat down beside the insulted little one, and, smothering her laughter, said coaxingly,--
"I wouldn't mind that, Daisy. Here, dry your eyes."
"Yes, you would," sobbed Daisy, taking down the hat, but rejecting the pocket handkerchief her sister offered; "I have a potterhancher of my own in my pottet;" and she pulled out the ten-inch square article in question, and mournfully obeyed Nellie's directions.
"He called me a fellow too, and he ought to see I don't wear boys' clothes," she added.
"How did he come to be talking to you?" asked Nellie, trying to keep a grave face. "What were you doing?"
"I was very good and nice, just sitting on the grass, and making a wreaf of some clovers Carrie gave me," explained Daisy, piteously, "and he brought the meat in, and said, 'Good-morning, bub; you're a nice little fellow!' and I'm not, now."
"Here he comes again," said Nellie, as a jolly, good-natured-looking butcher's boy came around from the other side of the house.