ieked Molly.

"Who be ye?" cried one of the boys peering into their faces.

"What ye doin' dressed up this here way?" said another. The paint upon
their faces so disguised them that they were not recognized by any of
the boys, if, indeed, any knew them.

"They ain't none o' our folks," said another boy, trying to jerk off
Polly's head covering.

She turned on him fiercely. "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,"
she cried. "How would you like any one to treat your sisters so?"

"How'd you like any one to treat your sisters so?" mimicked the boy in
a piping voice. "I ain't got no sister, and if I had she wouldn't be
traipsin' 'round the P'int in circus clothes."

Wrenching herself from the boy's grasp, Polly started to run, the other
girls following. One boy thrust out his foot tripping Grace who fell
sprawling in the dusty road. Her companions stopped in their flight to
come to her rescue. "Oh, you bad, bad boys," cried Molly indignantly.
"If I don't tell Cap'n Dave on you."

"We ain't feared o' Cap'n Dave," was the scoffing reply.

The girls picked up the weeping Grace. "Are you hurt?" they whispered.

"I don't know," whimpered Grace. "Oh, how can we get home? I want to
go home."

Her weeping caused cessation in hostilities for a moment, but as soon
as the four figures started forward they were again surrounded and the
teasing recommenced.

But just as the girls were in despair of ever escaping from their
tormentors, another boy came up. "What's up?" he asked.

"Oh, nawthin'," replied one of the boys laughing. "We cal'late to keep
furriners away from the P'int, and these here ain't dressed like
Amur'cans."

"Who are they?" The boy bent over to peer into Molly's face. She gave
a joyful cry. "Oh, Ellis, Ellis, save us from them. They won't let us
go home."

The newcomer turned. "Say, you fellows," he said. "You'd ought to be
ashamed. These here is friends of mine. If any of you fellows touches
one of 'em, I'll pitch into him like sin. Don't you know who they are?
They're the little gals up to the Reid cottage, that's been so good to
us, nursing the baby and gettin' up that fair and all that."

The boys slunk away. "We didn't know it was them," the largest one
said. "Why didn't they say so? We thought it was that crowd of sassy
youngsters over by Back Landing; they're always so fresh. One of 'em
sneaked off with Dan's boat yesterday and we wanted to pay 'em back."

"I'm awful