The girls, banished to an upstairs bedroom that wasn't equipped with an escape route, slumped together on Carol's bed, awaiting news of their impending punishment.

Shouts could be heard from downstairs, along with Missy Hyde's occasional "Yes, Miss Ida." "No, Miss Ida." "Yes, Miss Ida."

"Death by hanging?" asked Olivia.

"No, she'll go for something slower, more painful," said Kay.

"Well, at least we cured Oli," said Mary.

"Cured me?" asked Olivia.

"Yeah. You faced one of your greatest fears and survived," answered Mary.

"My fear of monsters?" asked Olivia.

"No. Getting caught doing something stupid and embarrassing in front of everybody you know," answered Mary.

"Oh, yeah," she said with a sigh of relief.

Missy Hyde entered the room. They started to make a mad dash for the closet.

"Stop" she said.

They stopped.

"Sit" she said.

They sat.

Missy Hyde continued "So, you wrecked your room."

They nodded.

"And you wrecked Miss Ida's afternoon tea."

They nodded.

"And you wrecked Miss Ida."

They groaned.

"Okay. I'm open to any explanation short of misguided orphans and sun spots."

There was nothing but silence.

"Okay, would you rather explain it to Miss Ida" said Missy Hyde.

They all started in at once.

"Monster..."

"Growling and slith..."

"Screaming and..."

"Enough!" she cut them off. "Listen. I'm not completely out of it. I know Miss Ida can be a pain sometimes, but don't you think you went too far?"

Silence again. Missy Hyde looked heavenward with a "why-me-look", heaved a deep sigh. A stern lecture was always a requirement at times like these according to the Vicar, but Missy Hyde thought that reasoning never worked before... but...

In her best motherly voice, "You're going to run into a lot of people you don't like very much. The better you treat them, the better they treat you. It's that simple. You treat someone like a monster they're going to act like a monster. Am I getting through?"

"The Vicar always says, 'kill them with kindness,'" said Olivia.

"Exactly," said Missy Hyde.

"But dust was such a practical approach to monsters," said Mary.

"Yes, well, as soon as you get everything cleaned up, we'll talk about practical punishments."

"So what's it going to be? Death by hanging?" asked Kay.

"Starvation?" asked Carol.

"Life imprisonment?" asked Olivia.

Missy Hyde grinned a very evil grin "No, worse. Much, much worse."

She waved for the girls to follow and they all filed out the door moaning.

As they left, a small white scruffy looking little dog with the unlikely name of Phoophie, scampered into the room, one of the many pets that Missy Hyde allowed to roam in and out of the plantation house.

It scampered to the window box, nudged the lid open with its nose, and pulled itself inside. It growled a couple of times, scratched at the bottom of the window box, circled around five or six times, then settled down in the cozy little hideaway for its usual afternoon nap.

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