d soon her letter was ready to be
read aloud.

"'Dear Daddy and Mother,'" she began proudly. "'We hope you are well.
We are. Dot most wasn't, but I took care of her. She went out to the
barn to hunt for eggs, and the turkey gobbler saw her. He thought she
was carrying corn in the basket. He chased her and she ran. I heard
her crying and I ran down to the barn. She was backed up into a corner
and he was making noises at her. He is awful big, but I am not afraid
of him. I grabbed the broom Jud keeps to sweep the barn floor with and
I chased that old gobbler clear into the orchard. We are going to pick
berries to-morrow.'"

* * * * *

The twins had kept still as long as they could, and now it was their
turn.

"Tell Mother 'bout the snake I saw this morning," said Twaddles. "Jud
says it was a black snake after baby robins. It was on the grape arbor
where there is a robin's nest. Jud killed it."

"Tell Daddy I weeded a whole onion row for Aunt Polly," begged Dot.

"Wait a minute, I have to sign my name," interrupted Meg.

And she signed it, "Margaret Alice Blossom," right in among the words
of the twins' letters that Bobby was patiently writing.

The next day was very warm, and Aunt Polly thought they had better
play in the orchard instead of picking berries, so they trooped out
soon after breakfast, to find the orchard cool and shady.

"I wish I had my book that was drowned," mourned Meg. "I love to sit
up in a tree and read."

"Well, I loved Geraldine better than Tottie-Fay," said Dot, giving the
old doll a shake as she spoke.

"No use fussing," advised the sensible Bobby. "They're lost, and we
mustn't let Aunt Polly hear us, 'cause she'll think she ought to go
right off and buy us some more. I'm going to climb this tree. Who
wants a ripe apple?"

"I do," and Meg jumped up. "Let me hold my apron and you throw 'em
down, Bobby. Twaddles, stop teasing Spotty."

"I aren't teasing him," declared Twaddles indignantly. "I'm going to
teach him to carry bundles."

Twaddles' method of teaching the patient Spotty was to sit down on him
with feet spread wide apart and wait for the dog to shake him off.

Dot sat down quietly in the grass and began to make a bouquet of
wild-flowers. It was Dot who always helped Aunt Polly weed and water
her flower garden, and Dot who liked to see fresh flowers on the
dining-room table.

When Meg had her apron full of apples she sat down near