`` I do n't believe you mean it , '' he said , smacking her wrinkled cheek affectionately . `` You do n't LOOK like a lady who 'd whip a little boy just 'cause he could n't keep still . Did n't you find it awful hard to keep still when you was only 's old as me ? '' `` No , I always kept still when I was told , '' said Marilla , trying to speak sternly , albeit she felt her heart waxing soft within her under Davy 's impulsive caresses . `` Well , I s ` pose that was 'cause you was a girl , '' said Davy , squirming back to his place after another hug . `` You WAS a girl once , I s ` pose , though it 's awful funny to think of it . Dora can sit still ... but there ai n't much fun in it I do n't think . Seems to me it must be slow to be a girl . Here , Dora , let me liven you up a bit . '' Davy 's method of `` livening up '' was to grasp Dora 's curls in his fingers and give them a tug . Dora shrieked and then cried . `` How can you be such a naughty boy and your poor mother just laid in her grave this very day ? '' demanded Marilla despairingly . `` But she was glad to die , '' said Davy confidentially . `` I know , 'cause she told me so . She was awful tired of being sick . We 'd a long talk the night before she died . She told me you was going to take me and Dora for the winter and I was to be a good boy . I 'm going to be good , but ca n't you be good running round just as well as sitting still ? And she said I was always to be kind to Dora and stand up for her , and I 'm going to . ''
`` Do you call pulling her hair being kind XXXXX her ? ''
after albeit as for in like of though to under