ou do, Zelie? I see you are going out and I shall not detain
you for more than a minute. Little Helen is coming to drive with me."

She seated herself in a judicial attitude on one of the high-backed
hall chairs.

"I do not wish to interfere," she continued, "But I should like to
inquire if you know where the children are this afternoon?"

"I have a general idea," Aunt Zelie replied, slowly putting on her
glove and reflecting that it would take more than her sister's powers
to be able to say at any given moment exactly where they were.

"I thought you did not know. They are running through the streets,
Louise without her hat. It may do for boys, but for little girls I
think it disgraceful."

"I told them they might go to the Ford's; they do not play in the
street. You must have seen them when they were on their way there, and
I do not object to their running."

Mrs. Hazeltine shook her head. "How can you think it proper for Bess
and Louise to race with the boys in that fashion? You seem to be
conscientious, yet you do not restrain them in the least."

"I own I do not know how to make a difference between girls and boys.
Why are they born into the same families if they are not meant to play
together? And if they are to be strong and healthy they must be out of
doors. I am sorry to seem to set my judgment up against yours, but--"

"You are stubborn, Zelie, like all the Hazeltines. _I_ believe in
fresh air as much as you do, but I should send Bess and Louise to walk
with Joanna. However, I see it is of no use to talk to you. I should
never mention the subject at all if I did not feel a deep interest in
the children." Mrs. Hazeltine rose. "Here comes Helen," she said, "so
I'll not detain you any longer," and taking her little niece by the
hand she sailed away.

Meanwhile the culprits were taking breath on the grass in the Fords'
back yard, Ikey hospitably treating his guests to apples and salt.

"I suppose," Bess began, taking a bite of her apple, "that it is
rather mean to run away from Helen, but we have been very good to her
to-day, haven't we, Louise?"

"Yes, we have; and the more you do for her the more she thinks you
ought to do."

"She can't expect to go everywhere we go," said Carl decidedly.

The business on hand this afternoon was nothing more or less than the
erection of a telephone which had been constructed by the boys out of
fruit cans and pieces of old kid gloves. The main difficulty lay in
ge