by May-day. I have just remembered that May first is
Betty's birthday! Her mother always has a party for her."

"So it is!" responded Winifred, as she followed Ruth toward the shed.

There was a piece of chalk in the drawer of the work-bench, and Ruth,
laying the square of smooth dark wood on the top of a barrel, began to
mark a large heart, while Winifred stood beside her watching admiringly.

"There!" Ruth exclaimed, as her rather uneven chalk line came to an end.
"I guess that is enough to go by. We can make the edges smooth with some
of the tools."

Winifred agreed promptly. "I'll make the legs," she volunteered.

"Be sure and have them all the same length," advised Ruth. "You can take
this chalk and mark the places where to saw;" and in a few moments
Winifred with a small sharp saw was endeavoring to cut through the
strips of hard wood selected for table legs, while Ruth with a sharp
knife tried in vain to make some impression on the square of mahogany.
Snap! went the slender knife-blade!

"Oh, Winifred! quick! I've cut off my thumb!" screamed Ruth, as she
raced past the horrified Winifred and ran into the kitchen calling:
"Mother! Mother!"

In a moment her mother was beside her; the injured thumb was bathed and
bandaged, and Ruth was explaining, with Winifred's help, how the
accident occurred. It was really a deep cut, and it was no wonder that
the little girl had been frightened.

Mrs. Pennell went to the shed with the little girls, and looked with
troubled eyes at the cherished pieces of polished wood, and the fine
tools scattered about the floor.

"We must put all these tools carefully back in the chest, and the wood
on the shelf just as your father left it. Winifred will help me, for you
must not use your hand, Ruth," she said.

"But, Mother, we want to make a heart-shaped table for a birthday
present for Betty," Ruth explained. "Mayn't we use Father's tools?"

"No, my dear. It would have been a very serious thing if you had spoiled
any of his saws or planes. And those strips and squares of wood are
valuable. Besides that you and Winifred are not accustomed to the use of
tools; and you might really have cut off your thumb instead of only
cutting it," said Mrs. Pennell. "I am to blame that I did not tell you
how much your dear father valued these tools and wood."

"Oh, Mother! You are never to blame. I ought to have asked you," Ruth
declared.

"Well, my dear, I really think it would have been wis