She was just as bad to 'em as Mrs. Wiley was to me . It 'll be awful if you get a stepmother . '' `` I 'm sure we wo n't , '' said Una tremulously . `` Father wo n't marry anybody else . '' `` He 'll be hounded into it , I expect , '' said Mary darkly . `` All the old maids in the settlement are after him . There 's no being up to them . And the worst of stepmothers is , they always set your father against you . He 'd never care anything about you again . He 'd always take her part and her children 's part . You see , she 'd make him believe you were all bad . '' `` I wish you had n't told me this , Mary , '' cried Una . `` It makes me feel so unhappy . '' `` I only wanted to warn you , '' said Mary , rather repentantly . `` Of course , your father 's so absent-minded he might n't happen to think of getting married again . But it 's better to be prepared . '' Long after Mary slept serenely little Una lay awake , her eyes smarting with tears . On , how dreadful it would be if her father should marry somebody who would make him hate her and Jerry and Faith and Carl ! She could n't bear it -- she could n't ! Mary had not instilled any poison of the kind Miss Cornelia had feared into the manse children 's minds .
Yet she had certainly contrived XXXXX do a little mischief with the best of intentions .
Of On about after against as if in to with