and Rosemary decided to let Sarah severely alone when that small
girl hurled her music from the piano rack and began a violent
performance of "chop sticks." But Mrs. Willis waited patiently.

It can not be denied that Sarah made the remainder of the day a
veritable "blue Monday" for her family. Secure in the privileges
accorded her as an invalid, she quarreled with Shirley and Rosemary,
drove Winnie to distraction with repeated requests for cookies and
lemonade and answered Mrs. Hildreth snappishly when that good woman
stopped in for a moment's chat and generally behaved, as Winnie put it
"like all possessed."

And yet, when Rosemary announced at supper that Richard and Warren were
going to walk to the "Center" to see a man at the creamery and that
they would be back before dark and had said the girls might go with
them, Sarah's refusal to go immediately convinced her sisters that she
must be really ill.

They set off as soon as the meal was over, Rosemary and Shirley and the
two boys, and Sarah curled herself, a disconsolate little heap, in the
porch swing. And there her mother found her and in less than two
minutes had the whole story, from the pathetic beginning. "The hen was
awfully sick, Mother," down to the "queer feelings" Sarah had
experienced when Richard, always so good-natured and kind, had turned
into an entirely different person.

"And I'm afraid of Mr. Hildreth," wailed Sarah, the tears flowing again
as she ended her recital. "He'll yell at me, if I tell him, the way he
did at Warren."

"Why no," said Mrs. Willis, in the most matter-of-fact tone. "Why no,
he won't, Sarah. Certainly not. And you're not one bit afraid of him.
He'll he sitting out on the porch now, smoking his pipe and quite ready
to listen to whatever you have to tell him. You don't want Mother to
go with you, do you?"

"Of course not," said Sarah, almost as matter-of-factly. "I'll go now,
before the boys get back, Mother."

And away she marched to the bungalow, confidently, if not cheerfully.
She had meant to ask her mother whether it would be necessary to
confess that she had been the one who left the bins open, but Mrs.
Willis had so evidently taken for granted that Sarah meant to do this
at once, that the question had never been asked. Well, if Mr. Hildreth
wasn't going to yell at her and if she wasn't afraid of him--and her
mother had said he wouldn't and she wasn't--there was no earthly reason
why she should not ad