cricket!" applauded Will. "Bet you can't do it again."

"Come over here, and I'll try _you_," offered Cricket, and Will,
laughingly, put his arm around her waist. But his superior size and
strength soon told, and Cricket found herself down on her back.

"But you do well, youngster," said Will, patronizingly. "Try that twist
once more that you tripped Archie up on. That's a good one! Now, again!
That would fetch anybody if they weren't expecting it."

"I'm tired now," said Cricket, throwing herself on the grass, for they
were in the orchard. "Let's rest awhile." She clasped her hands above
her head, and lay back on the grass. Archie drew himself up on to one of
the low gnarled trees and balanced himself in a very precarious way
directly over her head.

"If you fall off that limb, you will come straight down and break my
nose," warned Cricket.

"There isn't enough of it to break, miss," said Archie, balancing
himself with care, as he tried to see if he could kneel upon a
horizontal branch without holding on.

"You'll have to be of a very _equilibrious_ nature to do that," said
Cricket, rolling hastily out of her dangerous position, just in time,
for Archie overbalanced himself, and came down with a crash.

"Now, see what you've done," said Archie, sitting up and feeling of his
back. "You spoke at the wrong time. I might have broken my neck."

Cricket meditated a moment, then addressed the sky, thoughtfully.

"Isn't it funny that when anything happens to a boy all by his own
fault, he always says to somebody, 'See what you've made me do.' Anybody
would think _I'd_ made Archie fall there."

"Well, didn't you?"

"When Donald can't find anything that he's gone and lost himself," went
on Cricket, still addressing the sky, "he always says he wishes the
girls would let his things alone. Boys are the _funniest_."

"If they're any funnier than girls, I'll eat my boots," said Archie,
firing green apples at a mark. "Girls are so finicky. There's Edna,
squeals if you touch her. If I give her hair just one little yank, you
would think I'd pulled her scalp off. If I give Will a good
punch"--illustrating with a resounding whack--"he doesn't squeal."

"No, but he hits back," said Cricket, laughing, as Will levelled Archie,
by a vigorous thump. "If Edna should hit you a few times like that, you
wouldn't tease her so."

"And she's always so careful of her clothes," went on Archie, ignoring
this point; "can't do this, becaus