people were so frightened that they came to a little girl just because
they guessed she was almost as bad as Colin himself.
She flew along the corridor and the nearer she got to the screams the
higher her temper mounted. She felt quite wicked by the time she
reached the door. She slapped it open with her hand and ran across the
room to the four-posted bed.
You stop! she almost shouted. You stop! I hate you! Everybody hates
you! I wish everybody would run out of the house and let you scream
yourself to death! You _will_ scream yourself to death in a minute, and
I wish you would!
A nice sympathetic child could neither have thought nor said such
things, but it just happened that the shock of hearing them was the
best possible thing for this hysterical boy whom no one had ever dared
to restrain or contradict.
He had been lying on his face beating his pillow with his hands and he
actually almost jumped around, he turned so quickly at the sound of the
furious little voice. His face looked dreadful, white and red and
swollen, and he was gasping and choking; but savage little Mary did not
care an atom.
If you scream another scream, she said, I ll scream too and I can
scream louder than you can and I ll frighten you, I ll frighten you!
He actually had stopped screaming because she had startled him so. The
scream which had been coming almost choked him. The tears were
streaming down his face and he shook all over.
I can t stop! he gasped and sobbed. I can t I can t!
You can! shouted Mary. Half that ails you is hysterics and
temper just hysterics hysterics hysterics! and she stamped each time
she said it.
I felt the lump I felt it, choked out Colin. I knew I should. I
shall have a hunch on my back and then I shall die, and he began to
writhe again and turned on his face and sobbed and wailed but he didn t
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