le,--with the suds on the bottom. And it was
upon this same dishpan that Connie climbed so carefully in search of her
darling dime.

The result was certain. As she slowly and breathlessly raised herself on
tiptoe, steadying herself with the tips of her fingers lightly touching
the stove-pipe, her foot moved treacherously into the soapy area, and
slipped. Connie screamed, caught desperately at the pipe, and fell to
the floor in a sickening jumble of stove-pipe, dishpan and soot beyond
her wildest fancies! Her cries brought her sisters flying, and the sight
of the blackened kitchen, and the unfortunate child in the midst of
disaster, banished from their minds all memory of the coming chaperon,
of Prudence's warning words:--Connie was in trouble. With sisterly
affection they rescued her, and did not hear the ringing of the bell.
They brushed her, they shook her, they kissed her, they all but wept
over her. And when Prudence and her father, with Aunt Grace in tow,
despaired of gaining entrance at the hands of the girls, came in
unannounced, it was a sorry scene that greeted them. Fairy and the twins
were only less sooty than Connie and the kitchen. The stove-pipe lay
about them with that insufferable insolence known only to fallen
stove-pipe. And Connie wept loudly, her tears making hideous trails upon
her blackened face.

"I might have known it," Prudence thought, with sorrow. But her motherly
pride vanished before her motherly solicitude, and Connie was soon
quieted by her tender ministrations.

[Illustration: We love you, but we can't kiss you]

"We love you, Aunt Grace," cried Carol earnestly, "but we can't kiss
you."

Mr. Starr anxiously scanned the surface of the kitchen table with an eye
to future spots on the new suit, and then sat down on the edge of it
and laughed as only a man of young heart and old experience can laugh!

"Disgraced again," he said. "Prudence said we made a mistake in not
taking you all to the station where we could watch you every minute.
Grace, think well before you take the plunge. Do you dare cast in your
fortunes with a parsonage bunch that revels in misfortune? Can you take
the responsibility of rearing a family that knows trouble only? This is
your last chance. Weigh well your words."

The twins squirmed uncomfortably. True, she was their aunt, and knew
many things about them. But they did think it was almost bad form for
their father to emphasize their failings in the presence of