e you kicking me for, Bobbie?"

"I wasn't," said Roberta.

Just then the first of the long nails in the packing-case began to come
out with a scrunch. Then a lath was raised and then another, till all
four stood up with the long nails in them shining fiercely like iron
teeth in the candle-light.

"Hooray!" said Mother; "here are some candles--the very first thing! You
girls go and light them. You'll find some saucers and things. Just drop
a little candle-grease in the saucer and stick the candle upright in
it."

"How many shall we light?"

"As many as ever you like," said Mother, gaily. "The great thing is
to be cheerful. Nobody can be cheerful in the dark except owls and
dormice."

So the girls lighted candles. The head of the first match flew off and
stuck to Phyllis's finger; but, as Roberta said, it was only a little
burn, and she might have had to be a Roman martyr and be burned whole if
she had happened to live in the days when those things were fashionable.

Then, when the dining-room was lighted by fourteen candles, Roberta
fetched coal and wood and lighted a fire.

"It's very cold for May," she said, feeling what a grown-up thing it was
to say.

The fire-light and the candle-light made the dining-room look very
different, for now you could see that the dark walls were of wood,
carved here and there into little wreaths and loops.

The girls hastily 'tidied' the room, which meant putting the chairs
against the wall, and piling all the odds and ends into a corner and
partly hiding them with the big leather arm-chair that Father used to
sit in after dinner.

"Bravo!" cried Mother, coming in with a tray full of things. "This is
something like! I'll just get a tablecloth and then--"

The tablecloth was in a box with a proper lock that was opened with a
key and not with a shovel, and when the cloth was spread on the table, a
real feast was laid out on it.

Everyone was very, very tired, but everyone cheered up at the sight of
the funny and delightful supper. There were biscuits, the Marie and the
plain kind, sardines, preserved ginger, cooking raisins, and candied
peel and marmalade.

"What a good thing Aunt Emma packed up all the odds and ends out of the
Store cupboard," said Mother. "Now, Phil, DON'T put the marmalade spoon
in among the sardines."

"No, I won't, Mother," said Phyllis, and put it down among the Marie
biscuits.

"Let's drink Aunt Emma's health," said Roberta, suddenly; "what shou