ll have to come right away."

Sister stuffed the buttons in her pocket and ran home, eager to see
what Louise and Brother had bought.

CHAPTER IV

PARTY PREPARATIONS

When Mother Morrison had suggested a fishpond for the party, Louise and
Grace had protested.

"Oh, Mother!" they cried. "That's so old!"

"But the children like it," said Mother Morrison mildly.

"It's fun," urged Brother. "It's fun to fish over the table and catch
something!"

Sister, too, had asked for the pond, so it was decided to have one.
Louise and Grace might not care for such things at their birthday
parties, but this, as Sister said, was "different."

"We bought bushels and bushels," Brother informed Sister as she bounded
through the hedge and up to the front porch. "Little colored pencils,
and crayons, and games, and dolls, and oh!--everything!"

Louise, whose shopping bag was certainly bulging with parcels, laughed
merrily.

"We bought all the little gifts for the fish-pond and for the--there! I
almost told you." She clapped her hand over her mouth and laughed again.

"For the what?" teased Sister. "Tell me, Louise--I won't tell."

"No, Mother said no one was to know," declared Louise firmly. "Now all
these packages you may open, and after lunch I'll help you tie them up
again and fix the pond. But these other parcels go upstairs to Mother's
room and no one is to touch them."

She tumbled half the contents of her bag on the porch floor and then
ran upstairs with the rest.

"Let's look at them," said Sister eagerly. "What's the matter, Roddy?"

"I was thinking," explained Brother, making no move to open the
packages. "We saw a little boy down town and his foot was all tied up
in a rag, and I know it hurt him 'cause he limped."

"Maybe he sprained his ankle," said Sister. "Like Dr. Yarrow's cousin,
you know."

"It wasn't his ankle--it was his foot," insisted Brother. "And I told
Louise Mother said we mustn't go on the ground without our sandals, and
she said she guessed the boy didn't have any sandals; she said he
prob'bly didn't have any shoes, either."

"Nor any stockings--just rags?" asked Sister in pity. "I like to go
barefoot, Roddy, but I like my new patent leather slippers, too."

"Maybe he has some for Sunday," comforted Brother, trying to be
hopeful. "Everybody has to wear shoes on Sunday."

"Yes, of course they do," agreed Sister, who had never heard of a boy
and girl who didn't wear shoes on Sunday an