e do be, indade! But if yez be afther eatin' thim
now, ye'll shpoil yer supper,--thot ye will! Here's one a piece to ye,
and now run away, and lave me do me worruk. Be off with yez!"

After accepting a cookie apiece, the children bounced out the back door
and down into the garden in search of Carter.

"We've come, Carter; we've come!" cried Marjorie, flinging open a door of
the green-house in which Carter was busy potting some plants.

"You don't say so, Miss Mischief! Well, I'm right down glad to see you!
And is this Master King? And Miss Kitty? Well, you all grow like weeds
after a rain, but I'll warrant you're as full of mischief as ever!"

"Kitty isn't mischievous," said Marjorie, who was proud of the sedate
member of the family.

"And it's Miss Kitty who's to spend the summer, isn't it? Well, then, I
won't have the times I had last year, pulling children up from down the
well,--and picking them up with broken ankles after they slid down the
roof! Nothing of that sort, eh?" Carter's eyes twinkled as he looked
at Marjorie, who burst into laughter at reminiscences.

"No, nothing of that sort, Carter; but we're all going to be here for a
few days, and we're going to give you the time of your life. Will you
take us out rowing in the boat?"

"I'll go along with you to make sure you don't drown yourself; but I
think you're getting big enough to do your own rowing. I'm not as young
as I was, Miss Midget, and I'm chock-full of rheumatism."

"Oh, we'd just as lieve row, Carter; King's fine at it, and I can row
pretty well myself."

But Kitty said: "I'm sorry you have rheumatism, Carter; I'll ask Mother
to give you something for it."

"Now that's kind and thoughtful of you, Miss Kitty. Miss Mischief, here,
would never think of that!" But, as Carter spoke, his eyes rested
lovingly on Marjorie's merry face.

"That's so, Carter," she said, a little penitently, "but do you know, I
think if you did take us rowing, it would limber up your arms so you
wouldn't have rheumatism!"

"Maybe that's so, Miss Mischief,--maybe that's so. Anyway, I'll try both
plans, and perhaps it'll help some. But I hear Eliza calling you, so
you'd all better skip back to the house. It's nearly supper time."

With a series of wild whoops, which were supposed to be indicative of the
general joy of living, the three Maynards joined hands, with Kitty in the
middle, and raced madly back to the house.

They all tried to squeeze through the back d