an' came to
see you. We want," she added succinctly, "tandies!"

"Well, you won't get any, not this time," said Mollie definitely, trying
not to smile, while the other girls were not even trying. It was always
hard not to laugh at the twins, naughty as they often were.

"Why?" demanded Dodo severely.

"Never mind why," returned Mollie, putting the little girl down and
taking up her knitting again. "Now run off, both of you, we want to
talk."

"But we want tandies," repeated Dodo, looking surprised that Mollie had
not understood the first time. "Dive Paul an' me tandies--lots of
tandies--an' we'll go 'long. Shan't we, Paul? Ooh--" the question ended
in an anguished wail as Dora's eyes rested on her faithless twin.

The latter had extracted Grace's half-filled candy box from under a
cushion where she had hastily hidden it at the first threat of invasion
by the insatiable twins and was at the moment busily engaged in
devouring its contents. Grace had been too busy watching Dodo to notice
him.

"Ooh, you bad boy! You bad boy!" wailed the little girl, making a dash
for Paul, who deftly evaded her and took refuge behind Betty's chair,
"Div me dos tandies--dive 'em to me."

"Can't," mumbled Paul, his mouth full, adding by way of explanation a
convincing: "All gone."

"Paul Billette, come here this minute," commanded Mollie sternly, while
Betty and Amy tried hard to check their rising mirth and Grace looked
bereft. "Come here I say."

"Make Dodo go 'way then," bargained Paul, adding in an explanatory tone:
"Last time she pulled my hair."

"An' me's goin' do it 'dain," declared Dodo vengefully, when Betty
reached over suddenly and pulled the little girl into her lap.

"Stay here a minute, Honey," she coaxed, and as Dodo tried vainly to
wriggle loose added: "Sister wants to speak to Paul."

"An' I," said Dodo soberly, "want to pull his hair."

Again the girls had to strangle their mirth while Mollie reiterated her
command to Paul. The latter, after regarding the wriggling Dodo for a
minute uncertainly, reluctantly left his refuge and stood before Mollie,
head hanging.

"I'se sorry," he said in a small voice, trying to forestall the
scolding he knew was coming. "Me never do it any more!"

"That," said Mollie sternly, though the corners of her mouth twitched
and there was a twinkle in her eye, "is just exactly what you say every
time you're a bad naughty boy. Now, just to make you remember how
naughty you were,