hree other kinds. An' it's got
four heads!"

"What!" shrieked Mrs. Munn, shaken out of her accustomed indifference.
"Arabella! You don't mean----"

But here Miss Arabella's hold on the fence relaxed, and she disappeared
into the orchard. Mrs. Munn turned her back on Long's store and
hurried up the street in the same direction. New doctor or no new
doctor, this crisis must be met at once. The innocent and facile
character of the Sawyers had long been a problem in Elmbrook, but who
could have dreamed that, even in their weakest moment, Jake and Hannah
could have been decoyed into adopting a four-headed monster!

Mrs. Munn's heart was heavy with dread as she hurried up the lane.
Miss Arabella had already arrived, and nearly all the other women of
the village were there. As she reached the door a chorus of shouts and
screams broke from the enclosed yard at the back of the house. Mrs.
Munn shivered. They had evidently tied up the fierce creature in the
stable, where it was exercising its four pairs of lungs all at once!

But the next Instant the stable door flew open, and four figures, two
mop-headed little girls in abbreviated skirts, a small, red-headed
toddler, and a queer, limping boy, the fleetest of all, were
precipitated into the yard. They flung themselves over the fence and
went, shrieking, away across the field. Mrs. Munn drew a great breath;
there was relief in it, and yet terror. It was not quite so bad, but
bad enough. What was to become of Elmbrook if the Sawyers had adopted
four orphans?

Mrs. Sawyer was sitting in the middle of a wildly disordered kitchen,
surrounded by her neighbors. She had the air of a child who has done
wrong, and knows it, but hopes for mercy. Evidently the orphans had
refused to be displayed to the visitors, for their foster-mother was
apologizing for their non-appearance. "They're kind o' wild yet," she
explained meekly, "not ever bein' out of a big city in their lives.
But Jake says jist to let them loose, an' they'll kind o' tame down all
the sooner. There ain't no use callin' after them," she added
resignedly, as Mrs. Winters made a threatening movement toward the
door. "It jist makes them run all the harder, an' mebby they'll get as
far as the pond. We'd better jist let them be."

"Well, go on wi' your story, Hannah," said old Miss McQuarry. "What
possessed ye to take all the bairns, wumman?"

Mrs. Sawyer folded her hands in her lap and continued:

"It