"coast was clear," but, after all,
all this was more for fun than anything else. This morning they had a
clear three hours before them, for Luke had gone to drive grandma and
auntie over to Plymouth, and they would not be back till almost
dinner-time. Of course the time must be improved by a grand romp in the
barn.

Eliza sat in the doorway crocheting. The older girls climbed the ladder
to a high beam, and then would shoot off on to the soft hay far below.
Zaidee ambitiously tried to follow. But half-way up the ladder her
courage invariably failed her, and she would sit still and shriek till
one of her sisters came and carried her down.

"Zaidee, don't climb up this ladder again," said Eunice, sharply, after
she had rescued her small sister for the tenth time. "If you do, I'll
leave you there. It's too high for you, and you're always afraid."

"I isn't a bit afraid," returned Zaidee, stoutly. "It's only when I get
up there, the ladder gets so dizzy."

"You get dizzy, you mean. At any rate, don't climb up there again."

"You mustn't speak cross to me," said Zaidee, who was a born rebel, and
resented any orders of her older sisters. "If you speak cross to me I'll
run away."

"Oh, don't, Zaidee!" begged Helen, in alarm.

"Yes, I will. I'll run away, and then she'll be sorry. Let's jump on
this little hay, Helen."

But after a time the high ladder looked so very tempting, and it was
such wild excitement to see the girls flying off that great, high beam,
with shrieks of fun and laughter, that Zaidee tried the experiment
again, of climbing up herself. She went up eight rounds bravely, and
then it suddenly looked so very far to the bottom that she screamed for
help, as usual.

"You're a naughty little girl, to climb up there again, after I had told
you not to," said Eunice, severely. "Now you must stay there and scream
till you promise me not to try it again." She knew there was really no
danger, and Zaidee was always trying to do what she could not.

"Take me down, 'Liza! take me down, Eunice!" she shrieked, till Edna
said:

"Oh, do take her down, Eunice, and have her stop."

So Eunice helped her off her high perch once more, with the warning that
if she did it again she would certainly leave her there and go away
where she couldn't hear her call. Then the older girls resumed their
fun. Zaidee and Helen ran out into the yard.

Presently, Helen came flying back in a great panic.

"Do come here, 'Liza! do com