"All right," assented Prudence. "If I'm not here when you get back, don't worry. I'm going for a walk myself." Their work done irreproachably, the twins and Connie went to the haymow and lay on the hay, still silent. The twins, buoyant though they were, could not so quickly recover from a shock like this. So intent were they upon the shadows among the cobwebs that they heard no sound from below until their father's head appeared at the top of the ladder. "Come up," they invited hospitably but seriously. He did so at once, and stood before them, his face rather flushed, his manner a little constrained, but looking rather satisfied with himself on the whole. "Twins," he said, "I didn't know you were so crazy about silk stockings. We just thought it would be a good joke--but it was a little too good. It was a boomerang. I don't know when I've felt so contemptible. So I went down and got you some real silk stockings--a dollar and a half a pair,--and I'm glad to clear my conscience so easily." The twins blushed. "It--it was a good joke, papa," Carol assured him shyly. "It was a dandy. But--all the girls at school have silk stockings for best, and--we've been wanting them--forever. And--honestly, father, I don't know when I've had such a--such a spell of indigestion as when I saw those stockings were April Fool." "Indigestion," scoffed Connie, restored to normal by her father's handsome amends. "Yes, indigestion," declared Lark. "You know, papa, that funny, hollow, hungry feeling--when you get a shock. That's nervous indigestion,--we read it in a medicine ad. They've got pills for it. But it was a good joke. We saw that right at the start." "And we didn't expect anything like this. It--is very generous of you, papa. Very!" But he noticed that they made no move to unwrap the box. It still lay between them on the hay, where he had tossed it. Evidently their confidence in him had been severely shattered. He sat down and unwrapped it himself. "They are guaranteed," he explained, passing out the little pink slips gravely, "so when they wear holes you get another pair for nothing." The twins' faces had brightened wonderfully. "I will never play that kind of a trick again, twins, so you needn't be suspicious of me. And say! Whenever you want anything so badly it makes you feel like that, come and talk it over. We'll manage some way. Of course, we're always a little hard up, but we can generally scrape up something extra from somewhere. And we will. You mustn't--feel like that--about things. Just tell me about it. Girls are so--kind of funny, you know."