“If you take my advice,” said Miss Jule to Anne, “you will have Baldy sweep all that loose straw out; it is hard for the pups to move about in, and by and by, when their eyes begin to open, the sharp ends will stick into them. I’ll send you down a barrel of prepared sawdust. If you sprinkle it an inch thick on the floor of the bedroom part, and then lay a breadth of clean old straw matting on top, it will make the nicest sort of a bed, and if it grows cold of nights before they are old enough to live in the cow barn, I’ll lend you one of my little kennel stoves with a protector around it. “Then until they are two weeks old, when their eyes will not only be opened, but they can really see with them, you must care for Happy entirely yourself, give her food and water, see that the door of her yard is open so that she can get in and out at will and keep herself clean, and do not let _anybody_ handle the pups, for as soon as the news gets about, Pinkie, Jessie, Sophie, Charlie, and Jack will be here in a flock, and it’s as uncomfortable for pups to be loved to death as to die any other way.” Miss Jule thoughtfully asked Tommy to ride on to the village with her, and then go home and help her pick crab-apples for jelly that Miss Letty had promised to make. It was almost impossible for him to keep his hands off the little creatures, and the chance of climbing and shaking the crab-apple trees and picking up the shining red fruit would hardly have been a counter attraction if it had not been capped with the idea of helping Miss Letty with the jelly. The skimmings of a jelly pot are very good when spread thick on thin bread, and the idea flashed through Tommy’s head that as it was Miss Letty’s first jelly-making she would be very apt to skim deep, and the results would be plentiful. Baldy arranged the house as Miss Jule suggested, that afternoon, also making a little window at the top of the bed corner for ventilation, and Anne established the “dining room,” as she called it, in the front half, where the food and water dishes could have a place clean and apart. Here for two weeks dwelt the “sixlets,” having no separate names or identity, except in the eyes of Anne, who knew them apart before they were anything but six insatiable mouths. Middle September brought some very warm days with it, and with all the doors wide open Happy moved to the dining room, where the air was better, and was at home to any admiring friends who chose to call, though she did not yet care to have the puppies touched, and had much more confidence in grown people than in children.