z," with an indignant and
contemptuous glance at her sullen husband, "don't want me to give it to
'em. He'd rather they'd up and die than to stand the ruckus, but I
ain't a-going to let my own children perish for a few cherry seeds with
a bottle of oil in the house and Doctor Tom Mayberry's prescription to
give 'em a spoonful all around." Mrs. Pike was short and stout, but
with a martial and determined eye, and as she spoke she began to
measure out a first dose with her glance fixed on young Bud, who turned
white around his little mouth and clung to the fence. Susie's sobs rose
to a wail and Eliza shuddered in Miss Wingate's skirt.

"Wait a minute, Mis' Pike," said Mother hurriedly, "are you sure they
have et cherry seeds? Cherries ain't ripe yet, and--"

"We didn't--we didn't!" came in a perfect chorus of wails from the
little fence birds.

"Of course they did, Mis' Mayberry!" exclaimed their mother
relentlessly. "It was two jars of cherry preserves that Prissy put up
and clean forgot to seed 'fore she biled 'em, and the children done
took and et 'em on the sly. Now they're going to suffer for it."

"We all spitted the seeds out, and we was so hungry, too!" Eliza took
courage to sob from Miss Wingate's skirt. Bud managed to echo her
statement, while Susie and the two little boys gave confirmation from
their wide-open, terror-stricken eyes.

"Well, now, maybe they did, Mis' Pike," said Mother, coming near to
argue the question. Her hand rested sustainingly on one of the brave
young Bud's knees which jutted out from the fence.

"Can't trust 'em, Mis' Mayberry, fer if they'll steal they'll lie,"
said Mrs. Pike in a voice tinged with the deepest melancholy for the
fallen estate of her family. "They'll have to suffer for both sins
whether they did or didn't," and again the bottle was poised.

"Now hold on, Mis' Pike," again exclaimed Mother Mayberry as her face
illumined with a bright smile. "If they throwed away the cherry pits
they must be where they throwed 'em and they can go find 'em to prove
they character. They ain't nothing fairer than that. Where did you eat
the preserves, children?" she asked, but there was a wild rush around
the corner of the house before her question was answered.

"Now," exclaimed the astonished mother, "I never thought of that and if
they thought to spit out one stone they did the balance. But Doctor Tom
was so kind to tell me about the oil and I paid fifteen cents down at
the store f