"'_Dancin'!_' she says, with a little groan. 'I donno what my conscience'll say to me about this when it gets me alone.' "'Well,' says Mis' Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss, seeing to the frosting on the ends of her fingers, 'I feel like they'd been pipin' to me for years an' I'd never let 'em dance. An' now they're dancin' up here safe an' light an' with us. An' I'm glad of it, to my marrow.' "'I know,' says Mis' Toplady, wiping her eyes. 'I donno but _my_ marrow might get use' to it.' "Long about ten o'clock, when we'd passed the refreshments and everybody had carried their own plates back and was taking the candy out of the tins, I nudged Mis' Toplady and we slipped out into the schoolhouse entry and set down on the steps. We'd just heard the Through whistle, and we knew the School Board Iron Gate Committee was on it, and that they must of seen the schoolhouse lit from 'way acrost the marsh. Besides, I was counting on Eppleby to march them straight up there. "And so he done. Almost before I knew it they stepped out onto us, setting there in the starlight. I stood up and faced them, not from being brave, but from intending to jump _first_. "'Silas and Timothy,' I says, 'what's done is done, but the consequences ain't. The Women's Evening Vigilance Committee that you appointed yourself has tried this thing, and now it's for us all to judge if it works.' "'Heh!' says Silas, showing his teeth. 'Hed a little party, did you? Thought you'd get up a little party an' charge it to the Board, did you? Be su'prised, won't you, when you women get a bill for rent an' light for this night's performance?' "'Real surprised,' I says, dry. "'Amanda,' pipes up Timothy, 'air you a fool party to this fool doin's?' "'Oh, shucks!' says Mis' Toplady, tired. 'I been doin' too real things to row, Timothy.' "'Nev' mind,' says Silas, pacific. 'When the new iron gates gets here for this here entry, we won't have no more such doin's as this. They're ordered,' says Silas, like a bombshell, 'to keep out the hoodlums.' "Then Eppleby, that had been peeking through the schoolhouse window, whirled around. "'Yes,' says he. 'Let's put up the gates to keep out the hoodlums. But what you going to do for the girls and boys of Friendship Village that ain't hoodlums? What you goin' to do for them? I want to tell you that I knew all about what was goin' on here to-night, and I give over the schoolhouse key myself. And now you look down there.' "It was Friendship Village he pointed to, laying all around the schoolhouse slope, little lights shining for homes. And Eppleby went on before Silas and Timothy could get the breath to reply:--