pests continued to dig, as
if laughing at the futile attempts made to get rid of them. At length
Gail sighed, "I am afraid we will have to resort to poisoned grain. I
hate to, because I am so afraid the children will get into it, or
something dreadful happen on account of it."

"I don't see how either the youngsters or even the hens could get at it
if it was put down the holes," said Faith. "Say nothing about it but fix
up a mess and Hope and I will drop it some day when the children are
away and the hens in their yard."

So Gail mixed up a huge bucket full of poisoned grain, and while the
younger trio were gathering flowers in the woods one afternoon, the
other sisters sallied forth with their deadly bait, bent on
exterminating their small foes.

All might have gone well had not the smaller girls suddenly decided to
play hare and hound, and it fell to Peace's lot to be the hare. With an
apron full of gay dandelion blossoms for the trail, the active little
body set out on a wide detour of the woods, across the bridge, up
through the Hartman pasture land, reaching the barbed wire fence on
their own little farm just in time to see Hope dropping a last handful
of grain into a gopher hole before returning to the house with her empty
pail.

"Now what has she been doing?" thought Peace, peering out from a thicket
of hazel bushes. "Oh, I know! I bet she is trying to poison the gophers,
like Mr. Hartman did. I wonder if they will come up after the corn right
away. I am going to watch. I'd like to see how it kills them."

She carefully wriggled her way under the lower wire, and sat down in
front of the nearest gopher mound, forgetting all about her dandelions,
sisters, and play, in the prospect of witnessing the death of one of the
enemy. But either Mr. Gopher was not at home, or else he suspected the
presence of an unwelcome caller, for he did not come up in sight for
even a nibble of the tempting corn; and at last, weary of her fruitless
vigil, Peace cried aloud, "He prob'ly can get all he wants without
letting me see him. I'm going to dig it all out on top, so he will
_have_ to come out in sight."

She quickly scratched the poisoned bait out of the runway, scattered it
liberally about, and settled back in her former position, with her eyes
glued on the mouth of the tunnel; but still Mr. Gopher did not come.

"You tiresome old thing!" she exclaimed impatiently, after what seemed
hours of waiting. "I shan't watch for y