orning?"

Sarah looked obstinate.

"Did you?" her brother insisted. "Answer me," he commanded, pulling
her to her feet.

"Yes I did," muttered Sarah. "Rosemary was busy practising and
Winnie's bread was in the oven."

"Why didn't you tell me she wanted me to call there Saturday night?"
demanded the doctor sternly.

"'Cause," murmured Sarah uneasily.

"You're ashamed to tell me, and I don't wonder," Doctor Hugh said
crisply. "You'd let a miserable little thing like an apology you
were forced to make her, interfere with your loyalty to service. I
thought you were bigger than that, Sarah," he added.

Sarah said nothing.

"If you were a nurse in a hospital or a doctor's office, you'd be
dismissed," her brother went on, "for all you know I might have been
needed seriously. As it happened, no harm was done, but that doesn't
excuse you. Hereafter you are not to answer the phone under any
circumstances. You can't be trusted to deliver the messages you
receive."

If he had only known it, Doctor Hugh had delivered a severe blow to
Sarah's pride. She had been extremely proud of her ability to answer
the telephone and welcomed the rare opportunities when Rosemary was
out or busy with her beloved music. But she said nothing and after a
day or two the doctor realized that she was not on "speaking terms"
with him.

"She ought to be spanked," he confided to Winnie, "but I don't
believe in that form of punishment for children as old as she is."

"It wouldn't do any good," said Winnie, "your mother spanked her
years ago when she'd take these silent fits. It only made her more
obstinate. You can do more with Sarah, Hughie, by helping her out
of a tight place than any way I know. She's always getting into
trouble and she never forgets the ones that stand by her. You keep
your eyes open and the chance will come."

The opportunity came sooner than either of them expected. For nearly
a week Jack Welles had been storming, to any one who would listen to
him, about the "low-down" thief who nightly took his can of fishing
worms.

"Plumb lazy, I call it," grumbled Jack, "to cart away the worms a
fellow breaks his back digging. Some worthless tramp is catching
fish with my worms and I intend to catch him."

His wails had reached the ears of Doctor Hugh, himself an ardent
fisherman when time permitted and his sympathies were entirely with
the defrauded one.

"Sit up some night and watch," he advised the lad. "Put the can in
th