first whack at the cakes; I think not," Daphne replied firmly.

"Now, my Aunt Jane's poll parrot, was ever any one so misunderstood?"
Sally turned to Miss Carter for sympathy.

"Never, my dear, I am sure Daphne's suspicions are unjust." Auntie
Mogs laughed. "But I must hurry away or I will be late and that's one
thing my children can't forgive. Poor darlings, they have so few
outings that they hate to waste a minute of their precious time."

"Why don't you take them to the zoo?" Phyllis spoke for the first time,
her voice sounded very tired but she smiled. "They'd like it a heap
better than the museum."

"No, dear, I think you're wrong. They are all very anxious to see the
pictures," Auntie Mogs replied, "but perhaps we'll stop in for a minute
to see your beautiful Akbar on our way home."

She left them and hurried off, and again an unhappy silence fell upon
them as they finished their luncheon.

"Let's go up to the snuggery," Janet suggested; "we don't have to help
Lucy for hours yet."

They climbed the stairs, followed by Boru and Galahad, and finally
settled themselves comfortably in the little room.

"Let's do our math," Sally suggested. "It's awfully hard. Taffy, you
can help us."

They pulled out the table and were soon at work. Phyllis tried to keep
her mind on the problems before her, but her eyes wandered to the
window where she could see that the shade across the yard was still
pulled down. She welcomed Annie's interruption a few minutes later.

"Please, miss," she said, "Lucy finds that there is no chocolate in the
house, so will you please telephone for some and tell them to bring it
over right away."

"No, I'll go for it instead, Annie." Phyllis jumped up, glad of an
excuse to be alone.

"Thank you, miss." Anne went downstairs, to assure Lucy that the
chocolate would surely be there on time.

"Too bad," Janet said, looking up from her paper. "We'll all go with
you, Phyl."

"Don't bother. The math is coming along so well with Taffy's help,
keep on with it. I won't be a second, and I don't mind going alone a
bit. I'll take Boru with me; he looks as though he wanted a run. How
about it, old fellow?"

Boru wagged his tail, looked at Janet, and then followed Phyllis,
barking lustily.

Once in the air with the stiff chill breeze in her face and Boru
frisking beside her, she threw off some of the depression that was
making the day horrible. The grocery was only a couple of blo