in the bush as a possible source of revenue, and so every piece of
scrub and the bluff behind the house were scoured for bottles.
Thirty-seven were found, and were cleaned and boxed ready for the
day.

Then Bugsey's conscience woke up and refused to be silenced. "Lib
Cavers ought to have them," he said sadly.

The others scouted the idea. Bugsey was as loath to part with them as
the others; but they had their consciences under control and Bugsey
had not.

"She couldn't take them in and sell them," said Tommy, speaking very
loudly and firmly, to drown the voice of his conscience. "It wouldn't
be dacent, everybody knowin' where they came from, and what was in
them, and where it went to, and who it was, and all."

Tommy had ideas on what constituted good form.

Pearl was called upon to settle it and, after some thought, gave her
decision.

"If you give Lib Cavers one package of 'Long Tom' popcorn and one of
gum for a present, it'll be all right. Don't tell her why yer givin'
it to her--just say, 'Present from a friend,' when you hand it to
her."

"Maybe she don't like popcorn, anyway," Bugsey said, beginning to
hope; "and I don't believe her ma will let her chew gum; and it don't
look nice for little girls," he added virtuously.

"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Tommy, who was a diplomat. "We'll
give it to her ma to give to her."

"Offer it, you mean," corrected Patsey; '"give it' means she tuk it."

Aunt Kate had been busy making suits for her young nephews all
spring, for Aunt Kate was very handy with the needle. She had made
shirts for Teddy and Billy with elaborate "flossin'" down the front,
so elaborate indeed that it threatened to upset the peace of the
family. Billy rebelled openly, and Teddy said when he was out of his
Aunt's hearing, that he would rather go without a shirt than wear
that scalloped thing. Aunt Kate was serene through it all, and told
them how fond their Uncle Bill had been of that same pea-vine
pattern. Pearl saw at once that there was going to be a family jar,
and so saved the situation by getting Martha Perkins to make wide
silk ties for the two boys, wide enough to hide the ramifications of
the pea-vine--and then to avoid the uncomfortable questioning of Aunt
Kate, she hid her glasses on the evening of June the thirtieth.
"Anyway," Pearl said to herself, "she might get them broke on a big
day like the 'First,' and she can see plenty without them, so she
can."

The 'morning of