for
this."

The name proved to be an enduring one, while the process of building was
more exciting than usual. Dr. McAlister had decided to have the cellar
extended for the wing; and the rocky ledge on which the house was
perched rendered blasting a necessity. For a week, they lived in a state
of alarm lest the house should be jarred down about their ears. For a
week, they heard the steady _clink_, _clink_ of the hammers on the
drills, the thud of the stone-laden hogsheads rolled over the boards
above the rock, and the thunder of the blast as it exploded. By the time
the week was ended, the noisy work of the carpenters seemed, in
comparison, like sweet music.

Strange to say, it was Allyn who most gloried in the confusion, and,
from the first shovelful of earth to the last nail, he was always to be
found in the thick of the fray. No matter how often the workmen picked
him up and returned him to his mother, he invariably reappeared under
their feet again, five minutes later, to be alternately a target for
their profanity and a receptacle for choice morsels from their
luncheons.

"No, Allyn," Hope said, with decision, when she found him investigating
the tip of a freshly-lighted fuse; "you mustn't go there again, ever. Do
you hear sister?"

"Ess," lisped the culprit. "I hears; but it is so instering."

"Too interesting for a baby like you," Hope said, laughing, in spite of
her pale cheeks. "If you do that again, Allyn, sister won't have any
little brother to cuddle."

"Why for not?"

"Because you'll be killed, dear."

"And will I be a little boy angel?"

"Yes."

"And do little boy angels have stomachs?" was the next unexpected
question.

"I don't know. Why?"

"'Cause then I can have all the pieces of cake I want," he answered,
with a vengeful recollection of the angel cake forbidden the night
before.

Since Theodora's visit to New York, there had been no fresh excitement
in the McAlister household, and the young people had settled down into
the peaceful routine of work and play which had preceded Archie's
coming. To be sure, it was never quite the same as in past years, for
their circle had been widened to admit Billy Farrington, and, moreover,
Archie's letters created a new interest for them all, for Hope more than
for the others, since to her they were more personal than to the rest,
and on her devolved the necessity of answering them. Mrs. McAlister used
to smile quietly to herself, at times, and s