An Old-Fashioned Girl

"He 's an awful boy, my dear; and if you have anything to do with him, he 'll torment you to death. Boys are all horrid; but he 's the horridest one I ever saw."

"She is n't a bit of a young lady, thank goodness! Fan did n't tell me she was pretty. Don't look like city girls, nor act like 'em, neither,"

"If I was the President, I 'd make a law to shut up all boys till they were grown; for they certainly are the most provoking toads in the world,"

Boys of fourteen are apt to think so, and perhaps it is a wise arrangement; for, being fond of turning somersaults, they have an opportunity of indulging in a good one, metaphorically speaking, when, three or four years later, they become the abject slaves of "those bothering girls."

dodged and chuckled

get into scrapes

to propitiate her tormentor

utterly quenched him.

ndescension of their sex;

exulted over them visibly.