ugh.

"Sarah is supposed to go to bed at eight o'clock," announced
Rosemary reluctantly. "She used to argue with Mother nearly every
night. No one ever wants to go to bed early, Hugh, and lots of the
girls stay up till ten."

"Then I'm sorry for lots of girls," rejoined the doctor. "Shirley is
going to be my good girl and go to bed every night at half-past
seven, aren't you, dear? Sarah at eight and Rosemary at nine--and
that's all settled. Put up the dominoes, children, and run along for
it's twenty minutes past eight this minute."

"I don't want to go to bed," wailed Shirley.

"I'll go up with you, darling," promised Rosemary, putting down her
knitting. "I'll tell you a story about the little brown bear."

"Don't want a story," said Shirley with finality.

Aunt Trudy put down her book and surveyed her youngest niece
sympathetically.

"What's the matter with my sweetheart?" she asked, her voice tender.
"Is she afraid of the big dark?"

The doctor made an impatient exclamation.

"That's nonsense, Aunt Trudy," he said curtly. "No child of my
mother has ever been frightened of the dark; we were not brought up
that way. Every one of us has been trained to go up to bed alone at
the right time, as a matter of course. Sarah, put away those
dominoes and go upstairs to bed with Shirley."

Sarah tumbled the game into the box and stalked from the room
without a word to any one. Shirley simply threw herself flat on
the floor and cried with anger. She was sleepy and tired and she
resented this summary curtailment of her privileges. For the last
two weeks she had been going to bed when Rosemary did and she liked
the plan.

"I hope you will excuse us, Aunt Trudy," said the harassed Doctor
Hugh, scooping his small sister up from the floor and carrying her
toward the door. "We're in sad need of a little discipline, I'm
afraid."

"And you're not going to enforce it," he said grimly to himself as
he marched upstairs with the screaming Shirley. "I seem to have my
work cut out for me--I wonder how about Rosemary?"

When he came downstairs again, having seen both Shirley and Sarah
quiet and asleep, he found his sister and aunt deep in the problem
of "narrowing off."

"I just waited to say good-night to you, Hugh," said Aunt Trudy
brightly. "I'm tired from the trip and I want to start the day
well to-morrow."

She kissed him and rustled out of the room, and Rosemary folded up
her work as the deep chime of the hall clock