-Now hev yer got that int' yer
head?"

"_About once in so often!_" Could any words in the language be fraught
with more terrible and wearing uncertainty?

"Well," answered Sarah Maud mournfully, "seems as if this whole
dinner-party set right square on top o' me! Mebbe I could manage my own
manners, but to manage nine mannerses is worse 'n staying to home!"

"Oh, don't fret," said her mother, good-naturedly, now that the lesson
was over; "I guess you'll git along. I wouldn't mind if folks would only
say, 'Oh, childern will be childern;' but they won't. They'll say, 'Land
o' Goodness, who fetched them childern up?'--It's quarter past five, 'n'
yer can go now:--remember 'bout the hats,--don't all talk ter
once,--Susan, lend yer han'k'chief ter Peory,--Peter, don't keep
screwin' yer scarf-pin,--Cornelius, hold yer head up straight,--Sarah
Maud, don't take yer eyes off o' Larry, 'n' Larry you keep holt o' Sarah
Maud 'n' do jest as she says,--'n' whatever you do, all of yer, never
forget for one second that yer mother was a McGrill."

VI

"WHEN THE PIE WAS OPENED,
THE BIRDS BEGAN TO SING!"

The children went out of the back door quietly, and were presently
lost to sight, Sarah Maud slipping and stumbling along
absent-mindedly, as she recited rapidly under her breath,
"Itwassuchapleasantevenin'n'suchashortwalk, that
wethoughtwe'dleaveourhatstohome.--Itwassucha
pleasantevenin'n'suchashortwalk,thatwethoughtwe'd leaveourhatstohome."

Peter rang the door-bell, and presently a servant admitted them, and,
whispering something in Sarah's ear, drew her downstairs into the
kitchen. The other Ruggleses stood in horror-stricken groups as the door
closed behind their commanding officer; but there was no time for
reflection, for a voice from above was heard, saying, "Come right up
stairs, please!"

"Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do or die."

Accordingly they walked upstairs, and Elfrida, the nurse, ushered them
into a room more splendid than anything they had ever seen. But, oh woe!
where was Sarah Maud! and was it Fate that Mrs. Bird should say, at
once, "Did you lay your hats in the hall?" Peter felt himself elected by
circumstance the head of the family, and, casting one imploring look at
tongue-tied Susan, standing next him, said huskily, "It was so very
pleasant--that--that"----"That we hadn't good hats enough to go 'round,"
put in little Susan, bravely, to help him