ere out.

Jack was on tiptoe with excitement. If they came out well, what a
triumph it would be! If they failed, what would his father say?

He looked again, and a most unexpected sight met his eyes. Water was
dripping from the trays, and the fine gravel beneath had become mud.

And there was a vacant space in the tray. An egg had gone--and it was
from the third row, the row which he had been so careful about, which
contained the best eggs.

And, yes, surely there was another hole. Another egg gone! What could
have happened?

He ran up stairs three steps at a time, shouting for Martha.

"What have you been doing, Martha?" he cried. "Two eggs are gone, and
the thermometer way below 80 deg., and all that water!"

"Sure, Mr. Jack, I haven't been there at all! You were at home yourself
to-day, and I never go near the place of a Saturday."

"Well, some one has been at it. Where's Cynthia? Where's Edith? Why
isn't somebody at home to attend to things?"

No one could be found. Jack rushed frantically about, and at last heard
the sound of wheels. Edith was returning from the tea. And at the same
moment, around the corner of the house came Cynthia, leading two crying
children.

They all met on the front porch.

"They've been up to mischief, Jack," said Cynthia; "I hope they haven't
done much harm. I found them on the bank behind the carriage-house. They
must have been at the incubator, for they had two eggs and the chickens
are dead. And they are two bad, naughty children!"

Even Cynthia the peacemaker had been stirred to righteous wrath by the
sight on the river-bank.

"You rascals!" cried Jack, in a fury, shaking them each in turn; "I'd
like to lick you to pieces! You've ruined the whole hatch."

"Go straight to bed," said Edith, sternly; "you are the very worst
children I ever knew. I ought not to leave the house a minute. You can't
be trusted at all."

They all went in, scolding, storming, and crying. In the midst of the
confusion Mr. Franklin arrived, earlier than he had been expected. It
was some minutes before he could understand the meaning of the uproar.

He looked about from one to the other.

"It only serves to justify me in a conclusion that I have reached," he
said. "You are all too young to be without some one to look after you.
Take the children to bed, Edith, and then come to me. I have something
to tell you."

Edith, wondering, did as she was told. Cynthia gave Jack one despairing
look and