_! don't you hear?"
Mandy kept her eyes gloomily fixed on the curve of her father's back,
as it bent and rose in the boat below, in time with the scra-a-a-pe,
swish, of the bailer.

"What's the use makin' b'l'eve you don't hear?" said Bub. "You know
you've got to go!"

"I just wish mother'd make _you_ tend baby once, and see how you'd like
it!"--and Mandy rose with an impatient jerk of her bonnet-strings and
slowly climbed the steep path to the house. Her mother, standing in the
door-way with baby on one arm, shaded her eyes from the sun as she
watched the cloudy face under the pink bonnet. It was always cloudy on
Mondays and Saturdays.

"Seems as if you didn't love your little brother, Mandy--such work as
you make of tendin' him! Just look how glad he is to see you," as baby
leaned forward and began pulling at the pink bonnet. "He's just had his
bread and milk, and if you set right there in the door, where he can
watch the chickens, I shouldn't wonder if he'd be real good for ever so
long. Father and Jeff wont be home to dinner, but there's plenty of
bread and butter and cold beans in the closet for you and Bub. You can
set the beans in the oven to warm, if you like--only be sure you put
'em on an old plate; and you can divide what's left of the ginger-bread
between you."

"Oh, mother! can't we eat it now?" said Bub, who had watched his father
and Jeff off in the boat, and, now returning to the house, didn't
quite know what to do next.

"Why, it aint an hour sence breakfast! But you can do as you like;
only, if Mandy eats hers, baby'll want it, sure. Better wait till he's
asleep."

"All right; Mandy can wait," said Bub, cheerfully, as his mother set
the plate of cake on the table before leaving the house.

"Oh, Bub, I'm awful hungry, too!" said Mandy. "You cut the cake in
halves,--mind you cut fair,--and hold my piece for me where baby can't
see it. Sit right here behind me."

So Mandy on the door-step, and Bub on the floor, with his back against
the door, which he gently tilted as he munched his cake, were very
silent and comfortable for a minute or two.

The hens crawed and cackled, with cozy, gossipy noises, in the sun
before the door; the baby blinked and cooed contentedly.

"Ready for another bite?" said Bub, holding out Mandy's cake close to
her left ear.

"In a min-ute," said Mandy, with her mouth full. "Bub Lewis, aint you
ashamed of yourself? You've been eatin' off my piece! I saw you just
now!