"The 'nouncements said to bring the _babies_"--involuntarily the mother smiled and the other sisters giggled. "I am lots bigger than a baby--" "You don't act it--" "Faith!" The mother's face was as reproving as her voice, and the older girl's cheeks flushed crimson as she murmured humbly, "I am sorry, mother; but really, she does say such awful things. She is always talking. And just look at that dress!" "I thought it would be pretty--" began Peace, but at that moment she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, and stopped so abruptly, with such a comical look of dismay and despair in her eyes, that the whole group burst out laughing. Peace joined in their merriment, and then soberly said, "I look like a chicken when the down is turning to feathers. What can I do about it? I _can't_ stay at home!" "Where is your green dress?" "Gail hasn't mended it yet." Faith saw her opportunity and immediately compromised. "Peace, if I mend your dress for you so you can go, will you sit perfectly still all the evening and never say a word until you are spoken to?" "Yes, oh, yes, I'll promise!" The mother opened her lips to speak, but thought better of it, and with a smile in her eyes, withdrew, leaving the children to their final preparations. At length the torn dress was neatly mended and buttoned on the wriggling owner, the bright curls were given a second brushing and tied back with a band of pink ribbon from Faith's own treasures, and the sisters were on their way to the mother's room for a good-bye kiss when a fourth girl, looking very sweet in a fresh, blue gingham, rushed excitedly up the stairs and demanded, "Where did you say you put the cake, Faith? Gail can't find it." "Why, it's on the wash-bench under the pantry window, covered up with the big dishpan." "There is nothing under the dishpan but an empty plate." "Hope! You are fooling!" "Cross my heart and hope to die," was the solemn answer. "Gail looked and I looked. She says somebody must have stolen it." "The tramp!" cried Faith and Cherry in one voice. "Bet he didn't!" declared Peace, who had stood open-mouthed and silent during Hope's recital. "I gave him a great big lunch and--and some matches to make some more with--" "Yes," said Faith, bitterly grieved over the loss of the cake, "and kept him hanging around here all the morning, till we thought he never was going. I suppose he took the cake for his dinner." "I don't believe it! But he did weed those flower beds beau--ti--fully!" cried Peace, championing his cause. "And he strung Hope's vines just as even! And the lawn is all mowed, and there ain't a sprill of grass left in the onion patch, and the rain barrel is fixed up and the back step is mended, and--did he stop up the leaks in the hen house? I told him just where they were." "Perhaps you told him to pay for his breakfast, too," suggested the older girl, sarcastically. "We found a half dollar under his cup after he was gone."