finish!"

"Not entirely. To prove that you violated the contract by going into the
forest to see if you could find me and gloat over my misery. Instead you
found--By the way, Willoughby, did you see any wild-cats?"

"Those three hags are in this!" said Willoughby furiously. "Are you
willing to swear you made that silly outfit?"

"I am, but not to you."

"And at that minute, if you'll believe me," said the S.-W.P., "the girl
got out of her machine and walked right up to the Percy fellow. I was
standing right by and I heard what she said. It was, curious, seeing
he'd had no help and had gone in naked, as you may say, and came out
clothed head to foot, with a horse and weapons and a watch, and able to
make fire in thirty-one seconds, and a tent made of about a thousand
rabbit skins."

Tish eyed him coldly.

"What did she say?" she demanded severely. "She said: 'Those three dear
old things!'" replied the S.-W.P. "And she said: 'I hope you kissed
them for me.'"

"He did indeed," said Aggie dreamily, and only roused when Tish nudged
her in a rage.

* * * * *

Charlie Sands came to have tea with us yesterday at Tish's. He is just
back from England and full of the subject.

"But after all," he said, "the Simple Lifers take the palm. Think of it,
my three revered and dearly beloved spinster friends; think of the
peace, the holy calm of it! Now, if you three would only drink less tea
and once in a while would get back to Nature a bit, it would be good for
you. You're all too civilized."

"Probably," said Tish, pulling down her sleeves to hide her sunburned
hands. "But do you think people have so much time in the--er--woods?"

"Time!" he repeated. "Why, what is there to do?"

Just then the doorbell rang and a huge box was carried in. Tish had a
warning and did not wish to open it, but Charlie Sands insisted and cut
the string. Inside were three sets of sable furs, handsomer than any in
the church, Tish says, and I know I've never seen any like them.

Tish and I hid the cards, but Aggie dropped hers and Charlie Sands
pounced on it.

"'The sleeve is now about Dorothea,'" he read aloud, and then, turning,
eyed us all sternly.

"Now, then," said Charlie Sands, "out with it! What have you been up to
this time?"

Tish returned his gaze calmly. "We have been in the Maine woods in the
holy calm," she said. "As for those furs, I suppose a body may buy a set
of furs if she likes." This,