, smothering
a little sigh of regretful anxiety, as she tried to give comfort to the
discouraged cook. So Kittie carried it down cellar, and throughout the
rest of the day made regular trips down to see if it was hardening any;
but it wasn't, and her spirits sank so low that the astonishing sight of
Ralph and Kat, sworn enemies when last she saw them, coming slowly up
from the pond under one umbrella and evidently on such amicable grounds,
did not rouse her, except to a moment of amaze; after which, she sank
back into a world of troubled dreams, where there seemed to be nothing
but cakes, swimming about in puddles of icing, while a dreadful penalty
hung above her defenceless head, if the puddles did not congeal into
ornamental coverings before a given time.

"Oh, dear, oh! What can the matter be?" sang Ralph, stopping at the
kitchen window, just in time to see her coming from the cellar-way with
a face bereft of all hope. "What has happened?"

"Oh, Ralph! I don't know what I shall do," she cried, with desponding
agony, and then sat down on the wood-box and burst into tears.

"Why, bless your poor little heart! Tell me about it," exclaimed Ralph,
swinging himself into the window, and hurrying to turn comforter.

"The ca-ake is ruined," sobbed Kittie, entirely given over to despair
and grief. "It's all slopped and soaked to pieces in the old icing--and
I don't want to tell Bea--and I don't know what to do, either.
I--I--fan--fanned it a whole hour to make it colder, and it didn't do a
bit of good, and--oh, dear me!"

"Well, that is a calamity, to be sure," said Ralph, feeling a masculine
helplessness since the trouble lay within the domain of cookery. "But
then, never mind; we'll drink lemonade, and let the cake go."

"Yes, I'd just as soon, but Bea--she'll be so disappointed, and I hate
to tell her," sobbed Kittie, wailing.

"But Bea is reasonable," urged Ralph. "She will know you did your best,
and ought to be ashamed if she says anything cross."

"Oh, it isn't that," cried Kittie, hastily. "She knows I tried, and she
won't say a word, but then she'll be so disappointed, because she wants
everything nice for Miss Barnett, and--and, I hate to tell her."

"Exactly," said Ralph, much touched at this little evidence of sisterly
consideration, and feeling a greater desire than ever to do something to
help the cause along. "See here, Kittie," he exclaimed suddenly, and
Kittie looked up quickly, for there was somethin