ah
finally succeeded in distancing the yellow jackets, but her shoes and
stockings, as far as she was concerned, were a total loss. Nothing,
she was positive, would induce her to go back and get them.

She limped sadly to the orchard and climbed her favorite wide-branching
apple tree, to take count of her injuries. Angry, white puffy
swellings showed where each sting had exacted toll.

"There must be a million," said the suffering Sarah.

But it was cold comfort, counting the wounds, and she longed for
sympathy. Glancing through her leafy screen she saw Richard skirting
the orchard fence on his way to the barn. She turned to scramble down
and in the descent struck her elbow on the bark, the poor elbow already
tender from a vicious sting. Sarah cried out in pain, let go hastily
and tumbled to the ground.

Richard had heard her cry and he came running to pick her up.

"Good grief, you are a wreck!" he ejaculated when he saw her. "There,
there, Sarah! You haven't broken any bones--I'll brush you off and
you'll be as good as new. Don't cry like that--please don't!"

CHAPTER XI

ALL SERENE AGAIN

"I think," said Richard, judiciously, "I'll carry you up to the barn
and wash you off; your mother might think you were permanently
disfigured if she saw you now."

Sarah was truly a forlorn-looking object, but he tucked her under his
arm and set off for the barn, trying in vain to soothe her as they
went. Sarah wept continuously and only stopped when she was put down
on the barn floor. She stopped then because someone was making more
noise than she could possibly make.

"I don't want to hear another word," Mr. Hildreth was saying in a cold,
loud voice. "Not another word. You left those grain bins open and the
least you can do is to admit it like a man."

"I did not leave them open!" Warren's voice was as passionate and
shaken as the other's was cold. "I tell you I did not! I haven't been
in the barn this morning, except once to get the oil can. I wasn't
near the bins."

Richard was pumping water into a basin and Sarah was glad he was not
looking at her; She had forgotten to put the lids of the grain bins
down! The door of the small washroom was jerked violently open and
Warren strode in. Mr. Hildreth had evidently terminated the argument
by leaving the barn.

"Hello, you look about as amiable as a thunder storm," Richard greeted
his chum. "Got a clean handkerchief handy?"

Warren grimly e