l to dig and plant and rake and hoe. They recklessly
promised Winnie a vegetable garden back of the garage and risked a
late frost to jab onion and radish and lettuce seeds into the patch,
Peter Cooper, the handy man, spaded up for them. Rosemary acquired a
line of golden freckles across her nose and Sarah "got a shade
darker every day," according to Winnie.

"I don't care!" the object of her solicitation retorted. "I won't
wear a hat--they're hot and stuffy and make my head ache."

"But your mother won't know you," urged Aunt Trudy, who was sewing
on the porch in the warm sunshine. "She'll take you for an Indian."

"Oh, I guess my mother'll know me," said Sarah, but all her
determination could not keep out a note of doubt in her voice.

The next morning she was late for breakfast. Rosemary called her
twice and Winnie went up to see what was the matter.

"She says she's all dressed and she's coming right away," she
reported, but no Sarah appeared.

Doctor Hugh went to the foot of the stairs.

"Sarah!" he called in a tone that seldom failed to produce results.

"I'm coming," answered Sarah, and they heard her feet beginning the
descent of the stairs.

She came into the dining-room so quietly, that Aunt Trudy glanced at
her in surprise.

"Why Sarah!" she gasped, "What in the world have you done to your
face?"

"What's the matter with it?" demanded Sarah hardily.

"It looks skinned," said Shirley critically. "You can't go to school
looking like that, can she Hugh?"

Rosemary seemed to understand.

"So that's what you were doing last night!" she said. "I wondered
what you were fussing around so for; your light was burning long
after I went to bed."

"You've skinned your face, child," insisted Aunt Trudy. "I never saw
a worse looking complexion, never. What have you done to yourself?"

Winnie, bringing in the later-comer's oatmeal, took one hasty
glance.

"My land, Sarah, have you been walking in your sleep?" she asked in
alarm. "You look as though you'd fallen out of a window and landed
on your face."

Sarah's eyes filled with tears and two splashed down into her lap.
She looked at Doctor Hugh, who nodded to her encouragingly. He had
not said a word since her entrance.

"Never mind what they say, Sarah," he told her cheerily, "just tell
your old brother about it; looks are not the most important thing in
this world, are they?"

"Aunt Trudy said my mother wouldn't know me," explained Sarah,
winkin