"What were you?" Brother demanded eagerly. Unconsciously he dropped, hugging his knees, by the side of the young man, and Caroline, observing the motion, came over a little shyly and stood behind them. The young lady raised her eyebrows and shot a side glance at her host, but he smiled back at her brightly. "Well, we did quite a little in the pirate line," he replied. "I had an old Mexican sword and Ridgeway--that was my cousin--owned a pair of handcuffs." "Handcuffs!" Brother's jaw dropped. "Yes, sir, handcuffs. It was rather unusual, of course, and he was awfully proud of them. An uncle of his was a sheriff out in Pennsylvania somewhere, and when he died he left 'em to Ridge in his will. That was pretty grand, too, having it left in a will." Caroline nodded and sat down on an old log behind the young man. A long smear of brown, wet bark appeared on the nightgown, and one end of the blue ribbon dribbled into a tiny pool of last night's shower, caught in a hollow stone. "It was a toss-up who'd be pirate king," the young man went on, smiling over his shoulder at Caroline, "because I was older than he was, handcuffs or not, and after all, a sword is something. This one was hacked on the edge and every hack may have meant--probably did--a life." He paused dramatically. "I bet you they did!" Brother declared, clapping his hands on his knees. "Weren't there any girls?" Caroline slipped from the log and sprawled on the pine needles. "Dear me, yes," said the young man, "I should say so. Four of them. Winifred and Ethel and Dorothea and the Babe--about as big as your General, there, and dreadfully greedy, the Babe was. Winifred had the brains and she made up most of the games; I tell you, that girl had a head!" "Just like Caroline," Brother inserted eagerly. "Probably," the young man agreed. "She was pretty certain to be Fairy Queen, too, I remember. But Thea sewed the clothes and begged the things we needed and looked after the Babe." "And what did Ethel do?" "Why, now you speak of it, I don't remember that Ethel did much of anything but look pretty and eat most of the luncheon," he said. "She used to be Pocahontas a good deal--she's very dark--and I usually was Captain John Smith. Ridge was Powhatan. And Ethel's married now. Good Lord! She has twins--of all things!--and they're named for Ridge and me." "I'm glad General isn't twins," said Miss Honey thoughtfully, pulling her brother back from the fascinations of the tea basket and comforting him with the curtain-rod wand. "Still, we could do the Princes in the Tower with him--them, I mean," Caroline reminded her, "and then, when they got bigger, the Corsican Brothers--don't you remember that play Uncle Joe told about?" The young man laughed softly. "If that's not Win all over!" he exclaimed. "She always planned for Ridge to be Mazeppa on one of the carriage horses, when he got the right size, but somehow, when you _do_ get that size, you don't pull it off."