`` Never mind , Peter , '' said Cecily . `` You know lots of things they do n't . '' But Peter was not to be conciliated , and took himself off in high dudgeon . To be laughed at before Felicity -- to be laughed at BY Felicity -- was something he could not endure . Let Cecily and the Story Girl cackle all they wanted to , and let those stuck-up Toronto boys grin like chessy-cats ; but when Felicity laughed at him the iron entered into Peter 's soul . If the Story Girl laughed at Peter the mills of the gods ground out his revenge for him in mid-afternoon . Felicity , having used up all the available cooking materials in the house , had to stop perforce ; and she now determined to stuff two new pincushions she had been making for her room . We heard her rummaging in the pantry as we sat on the cool , spruce-shadowed cellar door outside , where Uncle Roger was showing us how to make elderberry pop-guns . Presently she came out , frowning . `` Cecily , do you know where mother put the sawdust she emptied out of that old beaded pincushion of Grandmother King 's , after she had sifted the needles out of it ? I thought it was in the tin box . '' `` So it is , '' said Cecily . `` It is n't . There is n't a speck of sawdust in that box . '' The Story Girl 's face wore a quite indescribable expression , compound of horror and shame . She need not have confessed . If she had but held her tongue the mystery of the sawdust 's disappearance might have forever remained a mystery . She WOULD have held her tongue , as she afterwards confided to me , if it had not been for a horrible fear which flashed into her mind that possibly sawdust puddings were not healthy for people to eat -- especially if there might be needles in them -- and that if any mischief had been done in that direction it was her duty to undo it if possible at any cost of ridicule to herself . `` Oh , Felicity , '' she said , her voice expressing a very anguish of humiliation , `` I -- I -- thought that stuff in the box was cornmeal and used it to make the pudding . '' Felicity and Cecily stared blankly at the Story Girl .
We boys began XXXXX laugh , but were checked midway by Uncle Roger .
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