imself with Roxanne's
scissors. "We've just decided in Scout Council to take the Palefaces
out to the Harpeth ridge to hunt spring shoots and roots, and we
always count on you for pies, Roxy, Stocking-darner."

"How lovely, Tony!" exclaimed Roxanne, rising right above the pies
which sank my heart like lead to think of her having to furnish; and
where would she get them? I was so dismayed that I never thought of
being embarrassed about being left out, as I, of course expected to
be; and so it came as a proud surprise when Tony asked me, in the
nicest way a boy could think of, to go with them. That is, he didn't
ask me, but ordered me what to bring like I had been going on the
Raccoon outings since infancy.

"You are to bring a white mountain cake in a cocoanut snowstorm, City
Bubbles," he said, with that funny flare of his eyes that always sets
me laughing inside whether I want to or not. "Belle is brewing
sandwiches and Mamie Sue is croquetting with some chicken. Don't tell
the dumpling, but we are going to rub asafetida on her shoes and leave
her to rest on a stone so as to lose her good and then find her by
smelling her track like true Scouts. Now, don't spoil a single pie,
Roxy; we'll need all six."

"I won't, I won't," answered Roxanne; and I saw that grandmother pose
begin to come to her head and I knew that it meant that she would
shake six pies out of that empty larder like the widow in the Bible
did the meal. "Did you ask Miss Prissy, Tony?" she asked, as if to
change the subject for an instant's relief.

"I did," answered Tony with a laugh; "and Miss Bubbles said she would
go accompanied by a basket of stuffed eggs to return accompanied by a
bunch of stuffed Scouts. We also asked the Colonel, and he made us a
speech of acceptance twenty minutes long, Pink and me. But I must
hurry along and encourage Mamie Sue not to eat all the chicken tasties
as she makes them. Do you two Palefaces promise to rustle around as
soon as I go?"

"We do," we both answered as he went out of the gate. Then we sat
still, paralyzed, instead of the promised rustling. Only I was the
most upset. Roxanne always brings out the rainbow and shakes it when
the clouds get down very low.

"What are you going to do about the pies?" I asked, forgetting my
promise to myself never to force Roxanne to look any kind of problem
in the face as long as she could keep her back to it.

"Well," she answered so placidly that I felt ashamed of myself