ok me all yesterday afternoon to catch them, too.
You have sold them all off, I see, already. How much did they bring?
Give me all the lemonade I want, and we'll call it square."

"I don't care whether you call it square or round," answered Cricket,
briefly, snipping Zaidee's fingers, which were creeping too near the
peppermints. "Zaidee, keep your hands away. You've broken a whole piece
out of that."

"How could she break a whole piece?" teased Archie. "If it's a piece, 't
isn't whole, Miss Scricket."

"If catching crabs makes you so brilliant, you'd better catch some
more," said Cricket serenely. "Now, do all of you go away. I see some
other people coming down to the dock, and I know they'll buy something,
if you go away, so they can see me," she added, rearranging her wares.
"Billy, drive them off." Thus ordered, Billy made a lunge at the twins
first, and they, secretly half-terrified out of their wits if he spoke
to them in his gruff tones, scampered off to Eliza. Eunice and Edna
strolled off, eating peanuts, and the boys betook themselves to new
sports.

All day the little maid and her faithful ally sat on the little wharf,
vending her wares. The dock had half a dozen sailboats moored there, and
their various owners, in passing to and fro, stopped, laughed, and
bought. Soon Billy had to take some of the accumulated money and go up
to Simon's to replenish the stock, and frequent expeditions there
through the day were made. The two refreshed themselves in the intervals
of business with sundry glasses of lemonade, and occasional "peanits,"
while every now and then a piece of a red or of a striped peppermint
found its way down Cricket's throat. Billy scrupulously paid for all he
ate. By supper-time nearly everything had disappeared.

"Now, I think, Billy, we might just as well drink up this little bit of
lemonade, and eat up those peanuts," said the tired little merchant.
"All the peppermints are gone, and it's most supper-time."

Billy was nothing loth, and together they soon cleared the board.

"Well, my little peanut woman, how went the day with you?" asked Auntie
Jean, at supper. She had, of course, patronized the peanut stand herself
during the day, with grandma. "All your wares sold?"

"Yes, auntie, everything," answered Cricket, as the always hungry tribe
gathered around the supper-table. "Billy and I ate up what little there
was left so it shouldn't be wasted."

"Then you don't mean to go on with your