try to keep up with
one man in a few things, but when it comes to a lot of old maids and
unmarried girls trying to catch up all the time with the men in
_everything_, and catch on too, I must say _I_, for one, draw the line."

Aileen could not help smiling at this diatribe on "the times." The twins
laughed outright; they were used to their mother by this time, and
patronized her in a loving way.

"We weren't there _all_ the time," Doosie said meaningly, and Dulcie
added her little word, which she intended should tantalize her mother
and Aileen to the extent that many pertinent questions should be
forthcoming, and the news they were burning to impart would, to all
appearance, be dragged out of them--a process in which the twins
revelled.

"We met Luigi on the road near the bridge."

"What do you suppose Luigi's doing up here at this time, I'd like to
know," said Mrs. Caukins, turning to Aileen and ignoring the children.

"He come up on an errand to see some of the quarrymen," piped up both
the girls at the same time.

"Oh, is that all?" said their mother indifferently; then, much to the
twins' chagrin, she suddenly changed the subject. "I want you to take
the glass of wine jell on the second shelf in the pantry over to Mrs.
Googe's after you finish your supper--you can leave it with the girl and
tell her not to say anything to Mrs. Googe about it, but just put some
in a saucer and give it to her with her supper. Maybe it'll tempt her to
taste it, poor soul!"

The twins sat up very straight on their chairs. A look of consternation
came into their faces.

"We don't want to go," murmured Dulcie.

"Don't want to go!" their mother exclaimed; decided irritation was
audible in her voice. "For pity's sake, what is the matter now, that you
can't run on an errand for me just over the bridge, and here you've been
prowling about in the dusk for the last hour around those lonesome
sheepfolds and 'Lias nowheres near--I declare, I could understand my six
boys even if they were terrors when they were little. You could always
count on their being somewheres anyway, even if 't was on the top of
freight cars at The Corners or at the bottom of the pond diving for
pebbles that they brought up between their lips and run the risk of
choking besides drowning; and they did think the same thoughts for at
least twenty-four hours on a stretch, when they were set on having
things--but when it come to my having two girls, and I forty at t