tly shut the kitchen door and sat
down in the dining-room to read. Suddenly a shower came up, and out she
ran to close the windows in the kitchen and the sewing-room, where the
rain was pouring in.

She had hardly begun reading again when she heard Bob clatter up the
back steps, tear through the kitchen in search of his raincoat, and
hurry out again. The wind was blowing hard and swept through the open
kitchen, banging the dustpan against the wall like a fire alarm gong.

Betty read on. Presently she looked at the clock and sprang to her feet.
"Why, how long Baby is sleeping today! 'Most three hours and never a
peep. I wonder--"

A faint whiff of gas from the kitchen made her turn pale with dread.
Then it flashed into her mind what must have happened--that sudden gust
of wind had blown out the gas! As she ran to the kitchen, she realized
that she had caught the same faint smell several times before. "Oh!" she
sobbed, "what if Baby--"

Mother, sound asleep upstairs, was roused by a crash from the kitchen, a
shriek from Betty, and the sound of a shattered window-pane; for Betty,
finding that the outside door stuck fast, had hurled a frying-pan
through the window. Then she ran to the sewing-room as the life-giving
breeze poured in through the broken pane.

Startled, bewildered, still only half awake, Mother stumbled to the
kitchen and found Betty, with the unconscious baby in her arms, groping
her way toward the dining-room. Snatching them both up and rushing
toward the open air, Mother landed in a heap on the front porch, Betty
and the baby on top of her. And then--oh, glorious sound!--came a feeble
little cry from Baby, and they knew she was safe after all! There Father
and Bob found them a few minutes later, laughing and crying and hugging
each other by turns. Betty's quick wits had saved the day.

Mother was telling the whole story that evening, not forgetting the
rusty nails and the flower pots--two risks which neither Father nor
Mother had ever thought of before--when a sturdy little figure in a
Safety Scout uniform paused at the door and listened with a shrewd
twinkle in his eye.

It was Sure Pop, who had looked in to say good night to the twins. He
caught Betty's eye, beckoned her into the hall--and when she came back
to the supper table, Bob's sharp eye caught the gleam of a Safety First
button over _her_ heart, too.

Betty had evened the score!

_Safety scouting begins at home._