ng
to get hold of that four thousand a year the twins are eternally
bragging about? Are you trying to throw yourself into the old
school-teacher's pocketbook, or what?"

"Don't be silly, Gene," she said, "come and sit down and--"

"Sit down, your grandmother!" he snapped still angrily. "Old Double D.
D. will be bobbing up in a minute, and the twins'll drag me off to hear
about a sick rooster, or something. He is coming, isn't he?"

"I--guess he is," she said confusedly.

"Let's cut and run, will you?" he suggested hopefully. "We can be out of
sight before--Come on, Fairy, be good to me. I haven't had a glimpse or
a touch of you the whole week. What do you reckon I came down here for?
Come on. Let's beat it." He looked around with a worried air. "Hurry, or
the twins'll get us."

Fairy hesitated, and was lost. Gene grabbed her hand, and the next
instant, laughing, they were crawling under the fence at the south
corner of the parsonage lawn just as the twins appeared at the barn
door. They stopped. They gasped. They stared at each other in dismay.

"It was a put-up job," declared Carol.

"Now what'll we do? But Babbie's got more sense than I thought he had,
I must confess. Do you suppose he was kidnaping her?"

Carol snorted derisively. "Kidnaping nothing! She was ahead when I saw
'em. What'll we tell the professor?"

Two humbled gentle twins greeted the professor some fifteen minutes
later.

"We're so sorry," Carol explained faintly. "Babbie came and he and
Fairy--I guess they had an errand somewhere. We think they'll be back
very soon. Fairy will be so sorry."

The professor smiled and looked quite bright.

"Are they gone?"

"Yes, but we're sure they'll be back,--that is, we're almost sure."
Carol, remembering the mode of their departure, felt far less assurance
on that point than she could have wished.

"Well, that's too bad," he said cheerfully. "But my loss is Babler's
gain. I suppose we ought in Christian decency to give him the afternoon.
Let's go out to the creek for a stroll ourselves, shall we? That'll
leave him a clear field when they return. You think they'll be back
soon, do you?"

He looked down the road hopefully, but whether hopeful they would
return, or wouldn't, the twins could not have told. At any rate, he
seemed quite impatient until they were ready to start, and then, very
gaily, the three wended their way out the pretty country road toward the
creek and Blackbird Lane. They had a