come to mourn, proceeded to do it.

"To think," she said, "that if they had only made it a day later, dear
Charlie would have been exempt. It's too tragic, Tish."

"I don't know what you are talking about," said Tish in a cold tone. "He
does not have to register. He was born at seven in the morning, June
fifth."

"In the evening, Tish," said Aggie gently. "I was there, you know, and I
remember----"

Tish gave her a terrible look.

"Of course you would know," she observed, icily. "But as I was in the
room, and recall distinctly going out and telling old Amanda, the cook,
about breakfast----"

"Supper," said Aggie firmly. "You were excited, naturally. But I was in
the hall when you came out, and I was expecting my first gentleman
caller, which no girl ever forgets, Tish. I remember that Amanda was
hooking my dress, which was very tight, because we had waist lines in
those days and I wanted----"

"Aggie," Tish thundered, "he was born early in the morning of June
fifth. He will be thirty-two years of age early in the morning of
Registration day. And if he tries to register I shall be on hand with
the facts."

Well, whether she was right or not, she was convinced that she was, and
it is useless to argue with her under those circumstances. Luckily she
heard a dog in the lot just then, and threw down a broken bottle and
some bricks at him, and the woman in the apartment below raised a window
and threatened to report her to the Humane Society. But, as usual, Tish
was more than her equal.

"Come right up, then," she said. "Because I am a member of the Humane
Society and have been for twenty years. I consider throwing bricks at
that dog as patriotic a duty as killing a German, any day."

Here, by accident, the basket slid off the window-sill, and Tish closed
the window violently.

"It hit her on the head," she said, in what I fear was an exultant tone.
"I wouldn't have done it on purpose, but I guess it's no sin to be
thankful."

Because the incident I am about to relate concerns not only Registration
Day, but also Mr. Culver and the secret in the barn, I have been some
time in getting to it. And if, in so doing, I have reflected at any time
either on Tish's patriotism or her strict veracity, I am sorry. No one
who knows Tish can doubt either.

In spite of Aggie, in spite of Charlie Sands, who protested violently
that he distinctly remembered being born in the evening, because he had
yelled all the ensuing night