“You must come oftener, Dr. Pierce,” Maida said when at last they found themselves seated in the living room. “Oh I’m coming often enough,” Dr. Pierce said. “You’ll get good and tired of me before I have finished with you. I’m coming at regular intervals to see that you don’t drown yourselves or get ivy-poison, or sun-stroke or lockjaw or any of those things that children are so fond of. I shall make regular inspections. In fact I am going to make one this visit. Now that I speak of it, this strikes me as a good time. Line up over there against the wall, all of you, and stick out your tongues.” Life fell into regular habits after a while. For work--two hours every morning, except on Thursdays, took care of that. On Thursdays, however, it was a matter of several hours. For play--it seemed as though the rest of the long golden days was all play. After the household tasks came bathing which had become a habit as regular as eating. Bathing was almost the best fun they had--especially for Dicky. Dicky soon rejected the water wings. He was swimming now--not of course as fast or as well as the others--but swimming with that fresh joy which only the amateur knows. The others were perfecting strokes of various kinds and practising fancy diving of various sorts. Arthur was of course the best and strongest performer among them. Maida would never be more than a fair swimmer nor Harold; but Rosie had soon out-distanced Laura, was beginning to work into Arthur’s class. However Laura was still, would probably always be, the most graceful of them all. The afternoons were spent in walking and playing tennis; the evenings were given up to reading and games. It looked at first as if their program would never vary. The beautiful weather kept up and the beautiful country seemed full of diversion. Occasionally came a dark day and then the boys devoted themselves to boxing in the barn; their shouts and laughter would reach even to the Little House. On those occasions Mrs. Dore and Granny would gather the girls about them; set the older ones to mending or to teaching Molly and the Clark twins how to sew. The Big Six kept running into the Burles although the appearance of any of the Little House children on the path leading to the gypsy camp was a signal for Silva and Tyma to disappear instantly into the bushes. The children frequently came across the young gypsies peddling their baskets in the village--at the pleasant Wampum Arms which was the Satuit hotel; or at the quiet farmhouses along the road. In the long walks that they occasionally took in the woods, Maida and her friends were likely to happen upon the outlaw pair. If the Burles saw the girls coming, they quickly looked and walked the other way. The two gypsies were not however much bothered with attentions from the Little House children, for since the experience at the Magic Mirror, the latter never voluntarily glanced in their direction.