They all repaired to the house, and a few minutes later the big dining-room was the scene of great activity; the table strewn with the bright-hued pieces of material, Benita smoothing and pinning the patterns, the Senora superintending, and the girls cutting and snipping to their hearts' content. At the same time there went on an incessant chatter, chatter, to the cheerful accompaniment of the sewing-machine. When Juanita entered to spread the cloth for their early dinner, the girls looked up in surprise. "I never knew time fly so quickly before," said Debby. "If I'd known this kind of sewing was so easy and so fascinating," Blue Bonnet declared, "I'd have taken it up before. It's much nicer than embroidery or mending. Just see how much I've done!" She proudly held up the bright red garment. Sarah scanned it with perplexed eyes. "It looks rather queer to me," she said. Kitty examined it, too, then snatched the suit from Blue Bonnet's hands. "Look!" she bade the rest, "--there's no place to get into it. Blue Bonnet has sewn it up the back!" There was a great outcry at this, which had the unexpected effect of making Blue Bonnet angry. "There's nothing on earth gives Kitty Clark such pleasure as finding me out in a mistake," she declared with flashing eyes and cheeks that burned with mortification. Then she turned on Kitty,--"I'm sorry the ranch can't offer you any other enjoyment!" she said scathingly and then, snatching back her ridiculed work, flung herself out of the room. Kitty's cheeks turned as red as her hair and she was just framing an angry reply to hurl after Blue Bonnet when she met Mrs. Clyde's eyes, full of a pained surprise. The girl checked the words on her lips at once, but a few hot tears came in spite of her efforts. "I was only joking," she said with a catch in her voice. "I'm afraid it was my fault," said Sarah. "I shouldn't have called attention to her mistake. I'll go and apologize." Kitty turned to Mrs. Clyde. "I apologize to _you_, Senora," she said, adding proudly, "but I've nothing to apologize for to Blue Bonnet. Half the fun of being a We are Seven is being able to say just what we want to. If everybody is suddenly going to be thin-skinned, I'll have to go about muzzled." "Blue Bonnet was hasty," said Mrs. Clyde, "and I'm sure she'll be ready to apologize as soon as she has thought it over." The sewing lesson for that day ended in a gloomy silence. At dinner the two "magpies," as Uncle Joe had nicknamed them, were mute. This unheard of state of affairs would have aroused comment at any other time, but just now their attention was diverted.