up
stairs, please!"

"Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do or die."

Accordingly, they walked upstairs, and Elfrida, the nurse, ushered them
into a room more splendid than anything they had ever seen. But, oh
woe! where was Sarah Maud! and was it Fate that Mrs. Bird should say,
at once, "Did you lay your hats in the hall?" Peter felt himself
elected by circumstance the head of the family, and, casting one
imploring look at tongue-tied Susan, standing next him, said huskily,
"It was so very pleasant--that--that" "That we hadn't good hats enough
to go round," put in little Susan, bravely, to help him out, and then
froze with horror that the ill-fated words had slipped off her tongue.

However, Mrs. Bird said, pleasantly, "Of course you wouldn't wear hats
such a short distance--I forgot when I asked. Now, will you come right
in to Miss Carol's room, she is so anxious to see you?"

Just then Sarah Maud came up the back-stairs, so radiant with joy from
her secret interview with the cook, that Peter could have pinched her
with a clear conscience, and Carol gave them a joyful welcome. "But
where is Baby Larry?" she cried, looking over the group with searching
eye. "Didn't he come?"

"Larry! Larry!" Good Gracious, where was Larry? They were all sure
that he had come in with them, for Susan remembered scolding him for
tripping over the door-mat. Uncle Jack went into convulsions of
laughter. "Are you sure there were nine of you?" he asked, merrily.

"I think so, sir," said Peoria, timidly; "but, anyhow, there was
Larry;" and she showed signs of weeping.

"Oh, well, cheer up!" cried Uncle Jack. "I guess he's not lost--only
mislaid. I'll go and find him before you can say Jack Robinson!"

"I'll go, too, if you please, sir," said Sarah Maud, "for it was my
place to mind him, an' if he's lost I can't relish my vittles!"

The other Ruggleses stood rooted to the floor. Was this a dinner
party, forsooth; and, if so, why were such things ever spoken of as
festive occasions?

Sarah Maud went out through the hall, calling, "Larry! Larry!" and
without any interval of suspense a thin voice piped up from below,
"Here I be!" The truth was that Larry, being deserted by his natural
guardian, dropped behind the rest, and wriggled into the hat-tree to
wait for her, having no notion of walking unprotected into the jaws of
a dinner-party. Finding that she did