l have all _we_ want to do, without two terrors of boys
added."

"To-day has been rather hard and disappointing," Tabitha acknowledged
with a gusty sigh.

"But to-morrow will be better," Gloriana comforted her. "And it is
only for two weeks. That's one consolation."

"Thank fortune!" Tabitha exclaimed with fervor; and the tired eyelids
closed over the drowsy black eyes and the gray.

CHAPTER III

UNWELCOME GUESTS

"Well, one whole week is gone," said Tabitha exultantly, as she bent
over the heaped-up mending basket one hot afternoon, and tried to make
neat darns of the gaping holes in the heels of Susie's stockings.

"Yes, and half of the first day of the second week," Gloriana replied
cheerily. "But really, Puss, time hasn't dragged as slowly as I
feared. That first day was the longest, I think, I ever knew."

"That first day was a horrible nightmare," the older girl emphatically
declared. "I thought it _never_ would end, and I'd have quit my job on
the spot if there had been anyone to take my place."

"I'd have quit it anyway if you had just said the word," laughed her
companion. "I thought you'd never go to sleep that night--I wanted so
badly to cry."

"Did you? So did I, but you kept tossing so restlessly that I knew you
were still awake, and finally I dropped off without getting my cry at
all."

"That's just what I did, too!" giggled Gloriana.

"And the next morning everything looked so different----"

"Yes, I could laugh then at the burro's nose in your lovely pie and the
seeds in my gingerbread; but they didn't seem so funny the night
before."

"They seemed anything but funny to me for several days, and I don't
think I'll ever see a chocolate pie or a gingerbread again in my life
without remembering this vacation."

"But things have gone splendidly since that first night," Gloriana
reminded her. "The children have tried to be angels, even if they have
executed some queer stunts for cherubs."

"Yes, I know, but I am glad just the same that half of
our--apprenticeship--is over. If this week will pass as smoothly as
last week did, it's all I'll-- What in the world is the matter with
the children? Sounds as if they were having an Indian war dance. I
wonder if those Swanberg boys are bothering again."

Both girls dropped their mending and hurried to the door just in time
to hear Inez's voice say cuttingly, "Of course we know who you are,
Williard and Theodore McKittrick!"

"G