quite still,
Marian."

The little girl obeyed and after some time Stella finished her work.
"There!" she exclaimed with her head to one side to notice the
effect; "that is not bad at all. Walk off, Marian, and let me see;
the spots aren't quite even, but then, as Mrs. Hunt says, 'they will
never be seen on a galloping horse.'"

"I am sure they look very well," remarked Alice admiringly, "and I
think you were very clever to think of it, Stella." And Marian,
though still a little shamefaced, felt more at ease.

"We'd better start back," said Stella, "for the afternoons are not
so very long now, and we have quite a distance to go."

"If we didn't have blackberries in the two buckets we might get some
of that nice cold water from the spring and carry it with us," said
Alice, "and then if we were thirsty we should have something to
drink."

"It wouldn't be a bad plan," agreed Stella. "I'll tell you what we
can do: Marjorie can pour her berries in our bucket and we can use
hers for the water. Our bucket is so big that it will easily hold
ours and hers, too."

"I'd like to see me do it," spoke up Marjorie. "I'd be sure not
to get back as many as I put in."

Stella curled her lip and lifted her eyebrows scornfully. "You
needn't be afraid," she said; "nobody wants one of your old
berries. If you are so particular, it is very easy to separate
them by putting a layer of leaves on top of ours, and yours on
top of that, and then there will be no mixing, and _we_ shall
be sure to get all that belongs to _us_."

Marjorie agreed to this arrangement, being quite ready to have
a supply of water on hand, and so Stella carefully arranged the
berries and said she would carry the bucket herself and that
Marjorie and Alice could take turns in carrying the water. So,
after everything was adjusted, they set off toward the town,
following the dusty road by which they had come.

The way home did not seem as long as the morning's walk, and not
a great deal of time had passed when the spires of the village
churches appeared in the distance, then they reached the outlying
houses, and finally the main street. "I'd just kite up the back way
if I were you," said Stella to Marian; "it is a little bit shorter
and you won't be likely to meet so many people. Good-bye. We turn
off here, you know. I hope you won't get a scolding."

The fear of this, or worse, had been in Marian's heart all along,
though she had not mentioned it, and as she st