ld be better if it was raining," Tish said. "You know, yourself,
Lizzie, how they come up during a gentle rain. Give me the
sprinkling-can."

I do not wish to lay undue blame on Hutchins, who was young; but it was
she who suggested that there would probably be a garden hose somewhere
and that it would save time. I know she went with Tish round the corner
of the house, and that they returned in ten minutes or so, dragging a
hose.

"I broke a tool-house window," Tish observed, "but I left fifty cents
on the sill to replace it. It's attached at the other end. Run back,
Hutchins, and turn on the water; but not too much. We needn't drown the
little creatures."

Well, I have never seen anything work better. Aggie, who had refused to
put a foot out of the car, stood up in it and held the hose. As fast as
she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the pails. I spread my
mackintosh out and knelt on it.

[Illustration: As fast as she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the
pails]

The thing took skill. The worms had a way of snapping back into their
holes like lightning.

Tish got about three to my one, and talked about packing them in moss
and ice, and feeding them every other day. Hutchins, however, stood on
the lawn, with her hands in her pockets, and watched the house.

Suddenly, without warning, Aggie turned the hose directly on my left ear
and held it there.

"There's somebody coming!" she cried. "Merciful Heavens, what'll I do
with the hose?"

"You can turn it away from me!" I snapped.

So she did, and at that instant a young man emerged from the shrubbery.

He did not speak at once. Probably he could not. I happened to look at
Hutchins, and, for all her usual _savoir-faire_, as Charlie Sands called
it, she was clearly uncomfortable.

Tish, engaged in a struggle at that moment and sitting back like a
robin, did not see him at once.

"Well!" said the young man; and again: "Well, upon my word!"

He seemed out of breath with surprise; and he took off his hat and
mopped his head with a handkerchief. And, of course, as though things
were not already bad enough, Aggie sneezed at that instant, as she
always does when she is excited; and for just a second the hose was
on him.

It was unexpected and he almost staggered. He looked at all of us,
including Hutchins, and ran his handkerchief round inside his collar.
Then he found his voice.

"Really," he said, "this is awfully good of you. We do need rain--don't
we?