Feeling the crisis near at hand, she tried to think of something that would “cap the climax,” but as nothing occurred to her, she added a verse impromptu to what she was singing: 

  “Oh! father dear, I’ve caught a fish; I’m sure it is a shad;
  Pray help me take him off the hook; you see he’s hurt so bad!”

This was too much for Plaisted.  Taking a sudden turn he faced his tormentor, but she heeded not his angry looks.

“I tell you what, Sherwood!” and he wheeled around angrily, “if I had a daughter who would play such stuff as that, I’d—­I’d smash the piano to atoms!” and he brought his fist down on the table with a crash.

“What do you mean, sir!” and Mr. Sherwood was on his feet in a moment.  “Your words and actions are insulting!” By this time Dexie was by her father’s side, ready to give the finishing stroke to her enemy, and gently pressing her father’s arm, said: 

“Let me settle this affair, papa.  I think, Mr. Plaisted, we can cry quits from to-day.  You have found great delight in calling me ‘Dexter.’  I hope you are equally delighted to hear your own name repeated in its most obnoxious form.  I find there is nothing more effective for a man of your stamp than to treat him as he delights to treat others.  It is through my exertions that you have enjoyed yourself so much to-day, and if you ever wish to have the pleasure repeated, just call me ‘Dexter,’ and I’ll do my best to repeat the entertainment.”

Everyone looked at Dexie in surprise, and fearing that Plaisted might still have doubts as to her meaning, she swept him an elaborate courtesy, as she said: 

“Good-bye, my dear Shadrach! don’t forget in the future that ’I hold the whip-handle, dear Shadrach, my Shad!’” and before the family realized what this scene meant, Dexie had left the room and her voice was heard in the hall singing: 

  “Farewell to thee, oh Shadrach! my dearest Shad, adieu;
  But Dexter has hereafter the upper hand of you.”

Plaisted was about to spring after her when Mr. Sherwood caught his arm.

“What does all this mean, Plaisted?  Explain yourself, sir!”

“It means that I am the victim of the most diabolical practical joke that was ever perpetrated on an individual, and it appears that Miss Dexie is at the bottom of it, though you have all assisted her in carrying it out.”

“If there is any joke afloat I am entirely ignorant of it, Plaisted, I assure you,” said Mr. Sherwood.  “I see that something is amiss, but I have no idea what it is, though apparently Dexie is not so innocent.”

“Let me explain,” cried Mr. Plaisted.  “Miss Dexie has, in some way, found out what my second name is, and that it is as hateful to me as ‘Dexter’ is to her, and she has made it the subject of a very cruel joke.  As I supposed that nobody knew my full name, you can judge of my surprise when I received this from the office,” and he held forth the valentine.