did the same, while Ellen looked equally
amazed and disconcerted. Theodora, too, remained very quiet.

We concluded that our elders had completely outdone us, and that they
were enjoying their victory in a manner intended to convey their
ironical appreciation of our small effort to rob them. The more we
considered the matter, the more sheepish we felt.

"These are charming good pippins, aren't they, Ruth?" said the old
gentleman to Gram.

"Charming," answered she.

Addison gave me a punch under the table, as if to say, "Now they are
giving us the laugh."

"And I'm sure we're much obliged for them," the Old Squire continued.

"Indeed, we are obliged," said Gram.

Their remarks seemed to me a little odd, but I didn't look up.

Not another word was spoken at the table, but afterwards Addison and
Ellen and I got together in the garden and mutually agreed that we had
been badly beaten at our own game.

"They are too old and long-headed for us to meddle with," said Addison.
"I cannot even imagine how they did it. I guess we had better let their
hoards alone in the future." None the less we could not help thinking
that there had been something a little queer about our defeat.

It was nearly two years later before the truth about that night's frolic
came to light. Theodora did it. She could not bear to have the old folks
beaten and humiliated by us, for whom they were doing so much. After we
had robbed their hoarding-places, she sallied forth again and took all
of our shares as well as her own, and then having replenished the looted
hoarding-places, she filled the two nappy dishes from her own hoard and
set them beside their plates.

The best part of the joke was that the Old Squire and Gram never knew
that they had been robbed, and thought only that we had made them a
present of some excellent apples. When Theodora saw how chagrined the
rest of us were, she kept the whole matter a secret.

CHAPTER XIX

DOG DAYS, GRAIN HARVEST, AND A TRULY LUCRETIAN TEMPEST

After haying came grain harvest. There were three acres of wheat, four
of oats, an acre of barley, an acre of buckwheat and an acre and
three-fourths of rye to get in. The rye, however, had been harvested
during the last week of haying. It ripened early, for it was the Old
Squire's custom to sow his rye very early in the spring. The first work
which we did on the land, after the snow melted, was to plough and
harrow for rye. With the rye we always