foundation and they want to open out
the side of the hall as soon as they start."

"It will be messy," said Winnie, with unmistakable disapproval of
anything "messy."

"It will be messy," agreed the doctor. "Worse than that, it will be
noisy. I want Mother and you to take the girls and go away till it is
over. I don't think anyone should be asked to endure the sound of
constant hammering in the hot weather; I'll be out of the house so much
that I don't count and of course I'll keep the other office till things
are in shape here."

He spoke evenly, but his eyes met Winnie's across Mrs. Willis' shapely
drooping head.

"I think we ought to get out of Mr. Greggs' way," declared Winnie
briskly. "Carpenters have small patience with women and their
housekeeping habits. They think we're interfering when we only want to
keep 'em from driving nails in the mahogany tables. And if they're
going to ruin the hall rug with their bricks and mortar I, for one,
don't want to be here to see it."

"Oh, Winnie, you fraud!" Mrs. Willis spoke merrily. "You are not
worrying about the hall rug--I know you too well. You're siding with
Hugh and you are both conspiring to wreck the household budget a second
time. I had all the luxury one woman is entitled to last year in the
sanitarium--from now on I intend to consider expenses and a summer away
from home isn't to be thought of."

"Your health is worth more than dollars and cents," said Winnie sagely.

"I'm not going to take music lessons this vacation," offered Rosemary.
"That ought to help, Mother."

"If I can arrange it so you can leave the house while the alterations
are being put through and yet keep the living expenses down to your
stipulated level--will you go, Mother?" said Doctor Hugh artfully.

"Can you come, too?" countered his mother.

"Well--part of the time at least," he temporized.

A sudden picture of her orderly quiet home in the hands of the
loud-talking, aggressively cheerful town carpenter and his helpers, the
gash in the hall letting in dirt and flies, with the attendant bustle
and confusion that go with artisan work, flashed across Mrs. Willis'
vision. Sarah and Shirley must be constantly admonished to keep out of
mischief and danger, Winnie placated when her domain should be
encroached upon. And the noise of hammers and saws and files!

"I have only two objections to going away, Hugh," said Mrs. Willis
quietly. "One is leaving you and the other is