Taking care to avoid the hornets, the girls brought their lunch from the boat and were soon joined by the boy bringing a pitcher of milk and some tin cups. "Mother said that she was glad for us to have the milk and that after lunch I am to bring you up to see her. Please come," he begged. "I want my mother to know both of you so that after you are gone I can talk to her about you and she will understand. I don't often have visitors at my house." In a burst of confidence, "I never had any before. Please do come." The pleading face of the boy was very attractive to Virginia as she looked into it. Its wistfulness persuaded her. "We will go and see your mother," she promised. A happy, satisfied smile came into his face. There was something familiar about that to Virginia. Her eyes became dreamy. "I'm going to kiss you," Helen suddenly announced. He resisted violently but was overpowered and force prevailed. "What do you want to do that for?" he objected, unappreciative of the favor so generously showered upon him by the fair Helen. "It spoils the fun. Don't you know any better than to want to kiss a feller all the time?" he complained. The sight of food pacified the infant as the girls spread the lunch. They all enjoyed the feast in the leafy bower and consumed a remarkable quantity of sandwiches, doughnuts, apple pie and milk. "My, but that was good!" he announced. "Don't you think that my house is a good place to eat in? I told my mother that if I could eat here all of the time I would get fat; but she said that I would become a worse little savage than I am." The boy chattered on as he led them over the meadow towards the back of a weather-beaten farmhouse. "Moth-er, Moth-er," he shouted, as they approached the back door. A middle aged woman of good appearance came to the door. Trouble had deeply marked her face. "Won't you come in?" she urged. "Charles Augustus," she reproved her son, "you should bring ladies to the front of the house, not to the kitchen door." "What's the difference?" he argued. "You can get in either way, mother, and this is the nearest." The girls, much amused at the reasoning of Charles Augustus, followed his mother through a spotless kitchen and dining room into a very plainly furnished front room. For a time Charles Augustus sat most sedately in a chair, listening to the conversation of the girls with his mother; but as the minutes passed; he became restless. Recognizing this, his mother suggested that he get some sweet apples from a tree in front of the house for their guests. Passing out of the open front door, he paused upon the stoop and began a shrill little tuneless whistle. As he moved forward, his foot or his crutch slipped. He lurched forward as if about to plunge headlong down the flight of steps which led to the yard below.