"There," said Bess, "that was what you scented. Those youngsters have been picking, I suppose, and that is their own personal allowance." "Berries! Five cents a quart!" called out one of the urchins, who at the same time stepped out into the road close to the slackened autos. "Not to-day," replied Cora, as she passed on, followed by the _Flyaway_. "Wouldn't you think they would want to take those home," said Bess. "I should think they would be satisfied with their earnings at the patch." "Maybe they have not been picking--except for their own use," responded Cora. "But here we are. Get out now, and we will walk over to the shanty where they crate the fruit." "What an ocean of green!" exclaimed Belle, the aesthetic one, looking over the strawberry patch. "An ocean of dust, I think," said Bess, as from the afternoon sun and breeze the grind of the picker's feet in the dusty rows between the countless lines of green vines just reached her eyes. "There are plenty of them," remarked Cora, wending her way along the narrow path, toward the shanty. "And so many people picking," added Belle. "Just look at those boys! They are as brown as--their clothes. And see that poor old woman!" "Yes, her back must ache," replied Cora. "What a shame for her to be out in this sun." "She looks as if she could never bend again if she should straighten up," said Bess. "See how she stares at us from under her own arms." This peculiar remark caused the other girls to smile, but Bess meant exactly what she said--that the old woman was looking up from an angle lower than her elbows. Just then the autoists faced two of the pickers--two girls. Both stopped their work and looked up almost insolently. Then they spoke under their breath to each other and "tittered" audibly. "They're rude," said Belle to Bess, picking her skirts as she stepped by. "Oh, that's just their way," exclaimed Cora. "I am going to speak to them." So saying she turned in between the rows. "Is it hard work?" she asked pleasantly. "No cinch," replied the older-looking of the girls, with a toss of a very good head of auburn hair. "Have you been out long?" persisted Cora. "Oh, we're always out," said the younger girl with a sneer. Her voice said plainly that she had "no use" for talking with the motor girls. "Do you work all day?" asked Bess, a little timidly. Bess was always ready to admit that she could talk to boys, but that she was afraid of strange girls. "All day, and all night," replied the younger girl. She had hair just a tint lighter than the other, and it was evident that the pair were sisters. "But you cannot see to work at night," Belle deigned to say. "We have lamps--indoors," said the girl, "and Aunt Delia keeps boarders." "Oh, you help with the housework too?" said Cora. "I should think----" then she checked herself. Why should she say what she thought--just then?