Pythagoras entered the room just then and looked astounded and disappointed when he saw Beth and Rob departing. "We are going out to a small party," Rob remarked to me, casually. It was after eleven when we heard them returning. "Do you suppose they have been walking all this time?" said Silvia in concern. "Beth wore no rubbers." The next day was Sunday and Huldah put into execution a plan for procuring one happy hour each week. This plan was the admission of the Polydores, _en masse_, to one of the Sunday schools. She chose the church most remote from home so they would be a long time going and coming, which she said would "help some." "Now," said Beth, as she watched them march away, "I can dare to tell you where we spent last evening. We were at the Polydore house next door. There is a little vine-screened porch on the other side of the house. Rob managed to open one of the windows and brought out a couple of chairs. It was as snug as could be." "I'll corral them every night," I said, "until you make your getaway, and I'll give you the key so you can go inside when it is cool or stormy." "We'll go around the block by way of precaution," said Rob. Presently Huldah returned from the Sunday school with triumphant mien. "They made them all into one class and put a redheaded woman with spectacles in for their teacher. I gave them street car tickets to come home on." When the Polydores returned, however, they were dragging Diogenes along and he looked quite weary. "Didn't you come home on the street car?" I asked Ptolemy. "No; we sold our tickets and got ice cream sodas," he explained. "We took turns carrying Diogenes on our backs." "You only had one ticket for yourself, and two half fares for Thag and Emmy," said Huldah suspiciously. "I thought Meetie and Di could ride free. You couldn't have sold them tickets for enough for sodies." "Rob gave us three nickels to put in the plate," said Pythagoras. "We only put in one of them, seeing we were all in one family and one class. That gave us four nickels for ice cream sodas and the clerk gave Di half a glass some one had left." "I gave you a penny for Di to put in," said Huldah. "What did you do with that?" "We wanted him to put it in, and when they took up the collection, he wouldn't give it," said Emerald. "I tried to take it away from him and he swallowed it. The redhead teacher was awful scared, but I told her he was used to swallowing things and that you said he carried a whole department store in his insides." "Poor little Di," said Silvia; "it's the only way he has of keeping things away from you all." That night I saw to it personally that each and every Polydore was in his little bed. It should have aroused my suspicions that none of them rebelled, or had evinced the slightest degree of interest or curiosity when Beth and Rob announced their intention of going out for the evening. At ten-thirty the lovers returned, bringing in Pythagoras, who was clad in his pajamas.