Toddie listened intelligently from beginning to end, and replied: 

“But I wantsh to go.”

“And you can’t.  That ends the matter.”

“No, it don’t,” said Toddie, “not a single bittle.  I wantsh to go badder than ever.”

“But you are not going.”

“I wantsh to go so baddy,” said Toddy, beginning to cry.

“I suppose you do, and auntie is very sorry for you,” said Mr. Burton, kindly; “but that does not alter the case.  When grown people say ‘No!’ little boys must understand that they mean it.”

“But what I wantsh izh to go a-widin’ wif you,” said Toddie.

“And what I want is, that you shall stay at home; so you must,” said Mrs. Burton.  Let us have no more talk about it now.  Shouldn’t you like to go into the garden and pick some strawberries all for yourself?”

“No; I’d like to go widin’.”

“Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, “don’t let me hear one more word about riding.”

“Well, I want to go.”

“Toddie, I will certainly have to punish you if you say any more on this subject, and that will make me very unhappy.  You don’t want to make auntie unhappy on her birthday, do you?”

“No; but I do want to go a-widin’.”

“Listen Toddie,” said Mrs. Burton, with an imperious stamp of her foot, and a sudden loss of her entire stock of patience.  “If you say one more word about that trip, I will lock you up in the attic chamber, where you were day before yesterday, and Budge shall not be with you.”

[Illustration:  TODDIE SUDDENLY FOUND HIMSELF CLASPED TIGHTLY IN HIS AUNT’S ARMS, IN WHICH POSITION HE KICKED, PUSHED, SCREAMED, AND ROARED, DURING THE PASSAGE OF TWO FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.]

Toddie gave vent to a perfect torrent of tears, and screamed: 

“A—­h—­h—­h!  I don’t want to be locked up, an’ I do want to go a-widin’.”

Toddie suddenly found himself clasped tightly in his aunt’s arms, in which position he kicked, pushed, screamed, and roared, during the passage of two flights of stairs.  The moment of his final incarceration was marked by a piercing shriek which escaped from the attic window, causing the dog Jerry to retire precipitately from a pleasing lounging-place on the well-curb, and making a passing farmer to rein up his horses, and maintain a listening position for the space of five minutes.  Meanwhile Mrs. Burton descended to the parlor, more flushed, untidy and angry than one had ever before seen her.  She soon encountered the gaze of her nephew Budge, and it was so full of solemnity that Mrs. Burton’s anger departed in an instant.

“How would you like to be carried up-stairs screamin’ an’ put in a lonely room, just ’cause you wanted to go riding?” asked Budge.

Mrs. Burton was unable to imagine herself in any such position, but replied: 

“I should never be so foolish as to keep on wanting what I knew I could not have.”