aining the little ones long enough to adjure them to: "Mind,
you've promised! And you know what happened to some folks you're named
for! No, I shouldn't have said that, poor innocents! I mean you must
do what I told you or you'll lose what I promised."

"Yep. We's do it, we's do it! I wants my brekkus!" answered one, while
the other echoed: "Brekkus, brekkus!"

Herbert placed them at a small low table in the corner where Dinah had
decided they must eat, or "take deir meals; fo' as fo' eatins, dey's
cwyin' fo' dem all de whole endu'in time! 'Peahs lak dem li'l ones
nebah would get filled up an' nebah had ernough yet in dis yere
world."

Yet once at table nobody could find fault with their behavior, except
for the extreme rapidity with which they stowed away their rations.
They seemed afraid to drop a crumb or mess themselves in any way and
the furtive looks they shot out from beneath their long lashes were
pitiful, as if they feared their food would be snatched from them and
themselves punished with blows. That many blows had been administered,
Dinah had early found out, since when bathing them she saw the scars
upon their poor little bodies.

This had been sufficient to reconcile her to the extra care and labor
their presence imposed upon her; for labor, indeed, they caused. For
instance: stealing into the kitchen where Aunt Malinda had set upon
the hearth a big pan of bread "sponge," to rise, they industriously
dotted its top with lumps of coal from the hod, in imitation of a
huckleberry pudding which had appeared at table. They even essayed to
eat the mixture; but finding this impracticable set to work to force
one another down into the pan of dough--with sufficient success to
ruin the new suits they wore as well as Aunt Malinda's "risin'."
Having discovered that sugar was sweet they emptied a jar of what
looked like it into a fine "floating island" and turned the custard to
brine. They hid Ephraim's glasses, and Dinah's bandana; they unloosed
the dogs, let the chains be fastened ever so securely; they opened the
gate to the "new meadow" and let the young cattle wander therein; and
with the most innocent, even angelic expressions, they plotted
mischief the livelong day. But they redeemed all their wickedness by
their entire truthfulness. Despite their handicap of names, they
acknowledged every misdemeanor and took every punishment without a
whimper.

"They're regular little imps! But, alanna, what'd this big hou