and barked sharply at the tall figure
standing in the center of the room. The rabbits could be heard
scampering about behind the closet door and the kittens set up a
hungry mewing from their basket under the bed. A faint scratching
came from beneath the inverted waste-basket where a dejected-looking
rooster drooped in lonely melancholy.

"Go away!" said Sarah.

"Give me that dog, Sarah," said Doctor Hugh sternly, hoping that he
would not laugh. "What do you mean by this kind of performance?"

"He's a nice dog and he hasn't any home, he followed me all the way
from the grocery store," said Sarah, her dark eyes regarding her
brother suspiciously. "Leave him alone."

For answer the doctor, with a quick movement, lifted the dog clear
of the bed clothes.

"You'll hurt him!" cried Sarah in anguish. "You don't know how to be
nice to animals. Give him back to me, Hugh."

"Look here, Sarah, this is no time for argument," said Doctor Hugh
crisply. "It is out of the question for you to sleep with your
barnyard friends. Everyone of them must go down cellar for the rest
of the night and we'll talk about what is to be done with them in
the morning."

Sarah wept and protested and even tried to fight for her pets, but
Winnie and the doctor were deaf to her pleas. Between them, they
carried down every forlorn animal--Sarah's tastes ran to the lame
and the halt and the blind,--and then Doctor Hugh opened the window
wide (Sarah had insisted on keeping both windows closed lest a draft
strike the sick kittens), kissed the back of his small sister's
head, for she persistently refused to turn her face toward him, and
snapped off the light, leaving Sarah to cry herself to sleep.
Rosemary and Shirley, in the next room, had slept peacefully through
the racket.

Unfortunately the next morning a call came for the doctor before
eight o'clock and snatching a hasty breakfast, he was out of the
house before the girls came down. He had no opportunity for the talk
with Sarah that day for although he came home to lunch, she was, of
course in school, and he did not get home in time for dinner. In
fact, it was nearly nine o'clock before his car rolled into the
drive.

Aunt Trudy and Rosemary, Winnie told him, had gone to the movies as
a Friday night treat, and Sarah and Shirley had gone to bed promptly
at eight o'clock.

"I was setting bread, and didn't see 'em go," Winnie added
significantly.

Doctor Hugh went upstairs to the third floor