"I do think you children might have kept yourselves decently clean until breakfast time," she snapped, crossly. "But I am sure you must try to see how much trouble you can give. Whatever have you been doing? Something you oughtn't to, of course." She stood glowering darkly down at them, and the two bright little faces lost their brightness. "We've been--'tending to Faith's new flower-bed," said Tom, sturdily, "the plants would have died if we hadn't watered them." "Faith's flower-bed? It isn't Faith's any more than it is mine, or--or----" The two looked at each other in consternation. If they had known that, they would not have spent their precious pennies in buying seeds for it. Tom's annoyance found vent in words. "If it was yours, why didn't you give it some water, then?" he demanded. Audrey made no reply. "If you don't behave yourselves, you won't be allowed to go to the picnic this afternoon," she said sternly, as she walked away to the dining-room, leaving two mortified, angry little hearts behind her. "I don't want to go to her old picnic," stormed Tom in his bedroom, as he scrubbed his earthy hands. "Oh, yes, you do--it isn't Audrey's picnic," urged Debby anxiously, "it is all of ours. It is daddy's really, and--and I shall have to go, Tom, and I can't go without you, there wouldn't be anybody to talk to. Say you'll come, Tom, do. There's going to be a cake with cherries and nuts on it, and one with jam--and Faith would be so mis'rubble if you didn't come." "All right," Tom assented, with a lordly air, "I'll come, just to show Audrey the picnic isn't hers, nor the moon neither. Don't worry." The Vivians were to arrive soon after lunch, and not return until the seven o'clock train in the evening. "I suppose I had better go and meet them," said Audrey, at dinner-time, "as they were my friends first." "And as I have met them twice since then, I think I will go too," said Mr. Carlyle, laughingly. "I have to be at one of the cottages near the station this afternoon, so I will manage to be at the station by time their train comes in." "Then I shall have time to make Joan tidy, and change my frock before they get here," said Faith quietly, as she helped the now quite recovered Joan to spoon up her pudding. Tom and Debby did not speak, but they exchanged glances which would have told a tale to anyone who had intercepted them; and as soon as they were allowed to leave the table, they strolled in a casual way to the back door, and through the yard. Then suddenly they started as though they had been stung, and raced away as fast as their legs would go. "I wish I hadn't forgotten to take off my overall," panted Debby, as they reached the station.