l to the lot of Jack to be close to the stove this morning and he
gave a momentary sigh for the coolness and order and daintiness that he
knew would give atmosphere to the breakfast in Mrs. Willis' household.
Not that he minded eating in the kitchen--he and his mother often did
that when his father was away and thought it a lark; but he did mind
the heat and the haste and the silence in which this, his first meal
with the Hildreths, was consumed.

"Ready?" said Warren briefly, when they had finished, leading the way
to the barn.

They had been working in the barnyard and vegetable garden for an hour
and were on their way to the tomato field--it was necessary to wait for
the heavy dew to dry before they began to work among the vines--when
the Willis family gathered for their breakfast at the round table set
on the porch this warm morning in Doctor Hugh's honor.

"Hugh, will you come watch me wade in the brook?" asked Shirley, eating
her cereal as though hypnotized and quite forgetting to protest that
she didn't see why she had to drink milk.

"You wait till you see Bony, Hugh," Sarah told him. "He's the best pig
you ever saw. He's bright."

"I wish, if you have time, Hugh," said Rosemary, "you'd show me what is
the matter with the camera. Every picture I take is overexposed."

"For mercy's sake, let your brother rest," Winnie admonished them,
bringing in a plate of fresh Parker House rolls. "He only gets a bit
of a breathing spell and he doesn't want to race from one end of this
farm to the other. Take that large brown one, Hughie."

Mrs. Willis, behind the silver coffee pot, smiled at her son.

"Best rolls I ever ate, Winnie," he said appreciatively. "I'll bet if
Mr. Greggs' wife could make rolls like these he'd be a sweeter-tempered
carpenter. I'm going to have the finest of vacations and rest
thoroughly by going everywhere with everybody. I'll watch you wade,
Shirley; and I'll give Sarah my opinion of this remarkable pig;
Rosemary and I will 'snap' the whole farm. But I wish it distinctly
understood that Mother and I have an unbreakable engagement to take a
drive every afternoon, or just after dinner, as she prefers."

"And won't you have to go see any sick people at all?" demanded
Shirley, almost upsetting her glass of milk in the excitement of having
a brother with time to spare.

"I left word with Mrs. Welles that I'd answer emergency calls, of
course," explained Doctor Hugh, answering his mothe