Billy hunched up his shoulders and clenched a small brown fist. "You got to say, 'Excuse me for them words,'" he said belligerently. "Ain't so, and you got to say it." Scenting battle, Eveley hastily muttered the desired words, and passed him over to Eileen. Billy thrust out a sturdy hand, but to Eileen's evident delight he refused to be kissed. "Betty's got to be whipped, Aunt Eileen," he announced. "Aunt Agnes told me to tell you all she did on the train, and you would whip her. She stuck a pin in a fat man that was asleep,--that's the man right there,--Say, didn't Betty stick a pin in you?" But the fat man gave them a venomous glare, and hurried away. "And she pulled the beads off of that blonde lady's coat,--and if you don't believe it, you can look in her pocket 'cause she's got 'em yet. And she swiped a box of candy from that lady in the yellow suit, and the lady said the porter did it, and they had an awful fight. And she sang _The Yanks Are Coming_ in the middle of the night and everybody swore something awful. And she wouldn't eat anything but ice-cream at the table, and one meal she had five dishes." Eveley and Eileen had listened in fascinated silence during this recital of his sister's wrongdoing. But Betty stuck a fat thumb between rosy lips, and drooped her eyes demurely behind her curling lashes. "Did--you do all that, Betty?" demanded Eileen at last, very faintly. "I did more than that," she said proudly. "I put the pink lady's bedroom slippers in a man's traveling bag, and they haven't found it out yet. And I slipped Billy's wriggly lizard down the black lady's neck, and she said a naughty word. And--" "And what did Billy do?" Betty's lips curled with scorn. "Billy? He didn't do anything. He's too good. He don't ever do anything." Billy advanced with the threatening hunch of his shoulders and clench of the brown fists. "You say, 'Excuse me for them words,'" he said in a low voice. "And say it quick." Betty jerked her finger from her mouth and mumbled rapidly in a voice of frightened nervousness, "Excuse me for them words, please excuse me for them words." And then, as her brother's shoulders relaxed, she sidled up to him, rubbing herself affectionately against his arm, and whispered, "Aw, Billy, I was only joking. You ain't mad at me, are you?" "Let's go," said Eileen. "I feel--faint." "Sticking pins is good for faintness," said Betty hopefully. "I did it to Aunt Agnes twice when she nearly fainted, and she came to right away." "And she gave Betty a good whipping." "Yes, she did, and I only did it to cure her," said Betty in an aggrieved voice. "Let's go fast," begged Eileen. "Take your handkerchief, Billy, and see if you can wipe a little of the dirt and blood off your face."