't be so bad as this morning.
Girls, we had a perfectly dreadful time. It was all on account of that
terrible little Swinburne boy. You see, we thought we'd take the big
Penfield boat, instead of the canoes, and just as we were pushing off,
that child stepped into the boat from the dock and announced serenely
that he was going boating-ride. He did look dear, and quite clean, and
we all knew that it was hard to make him change his mind, so we let him
come. He sat very still and was as good as gold till we had got a long
way from home, and then he began."

Catherine sighed appreciatively. "I can imagine, Bess dear. But do tell
us."

"You can't imagine. Nobody could. He talked a blue streak. And the
things he said! He asked what he was made of, and how God got the eyes
in. He told about somebody's having a tooth out and went into dreadful
details. And then he got off on a worse tack, and asked Archie where his
wife was, and when Archie said he wasn't married, he sighed and looked
so sorry, and said: 'Wasn't you _ever_ marwied, Archie? Not even
once?' He simply spoiled our morning. It wasn't so much what he did say,
as what we thought he might be going to. We had to turn around and come
home long before we wanted to, just on account of that child."

"If you had only thought to have Win sing to him," said Catherine. "He
will drop off to sleep with the least assistance, even when he seems
widest awake, and Win's lullabies are irresistible. There! that's the
last curtain. And there come Archie and Win with a donkey-cart,
and--why, what do you think they have? It can't be just a rug and two
lamps."

Every one broke off work to go to meet the donkey-cart, a low, long, box
affair, with Winifred and Archie on the seat, and a quantity of
furniture and boxes in the back.

Algernon, still holding a brush, took the donkey by the bridle and
backed him up.

"There, unload everything. It's all right. I sent these folks after
them. Didn't have time to go myself. Yes, yes, they belong here. The
Three R's sent the table."

With eager exclamations, the boys and girls unloaded six chairs, an oak
table, a rocker, a box spilling over with stationery and colored cards,
a miscellaneous lot of books, two neat rugs and half a dozen lamps of a
variety of styles and shapes.

"The Three R's gave the table and chairs," explained Algernon, "and Mrs.
Kittredge said to call at her house for the rocker and some of those
lamps. And these other th