first into one dish and then into the other, leaving them to drip
sticky puddles down the front of Tabitha's dress and on to the clean
kitchen floor.

"Why, you little monkeys!" gasped the senior housekeeper, forgetting
the dignity of her position in her wrath at what seemed inexcusable
carelessness on the part of the girls.

"Mamma _always_ puts molasses on burns," quavered Inez, her lip
trembling at Tabitha's tone.

"And Glory said butter," surprised Susie defended. Then both culprits
dissolved in tears.

"There, there, never mind!" cried Tabitha in dismay. "I didn't mean to
scold, but you ought to have known more than to stick the baby's dirty
hands into the molasses pail and butter crock."

"Not dirty!" screamed the outraged Janie, striking the face above her
with a dripping fist. "On'y burned! Ve pan was--" Her sentence
unfinished, she found herself ruthlessly shaken and dumped into the
middle of the floor, while angry Tabitha rushed out of the door into
the cool dusk of early evening, leaving a dismayed family staring
aghast at each other in the hot kitchen. Even the amazed baby forgot
to voice her protest at such treatment, but stood where she had landed,
staring with round, scared eyes after the fleeing figure.

Down the mountainside sped Tabitha to the big boulder, wheeled about
and rushed back to the house as swiftly as she had left it, and before
the astounded children had recovered their breath, she cried, "I am
sorry I was cross. I reckon I'm a little tired and everything has gone
upside down and--suppose we have supper now. I know you are all
hungry. Susie, while I am tying up Janie's hands, you might put the
potatoes on in the frying pan; Irene, set the table; Inez, fetch the
water; and Mercy, cut the bread. Is the gingerbread done, Gloriana?"

"Yes," responded the junior housekeeper proudly, "and already sliced
for the table. Shall I bring in the pie?"

"The pies!" shouted the six McKittricks.

"I had forgotten all about them," confessed the older girl. "Yes, you
better get them right away. One will be enough for supper,--the tins
are so large."

While Tabitha was speaking, Gloriana had stepped briskly out of the
door into the summer night and disappeared around the corner of the
house; but immediately a terrified scream pierced the air, there was a
loud snort and the sound of startled, scampering feet, and Gloriana
burst into the room again bearing an empty plate in one hand and