hat will sober you up a bit."

Phil raised her hands and with brown nimble fingers found and readjusted
the pin that affixed a shabby felt hat to her hair. Then she folded her
arms and looked at the tips of her shoes.

"The suspense is killing me. I who am about to die salute you!"

Amzi frowned at her levity. His frown caused a disturbance throughout
his vast tracts of baldness.

"You'll change your tune in a minute, my young commodore. Have you seen
your aunts?"

"No; but it's not their fault! Aunt Josie called; the others telephoned
for dates. I saw Aunt Josie first, which explains why we didn't meet. I
knew something was up."

"Something is up. They got me over to Josie's last night to ask me to
help. It's a big programme. And I wanted to warn you in advance. You've
got to stop all your capers; no more camps on Sugar Creek, no more
tomboy foolishness; no more general nonsense. You've got to be a
civilized woman, and conduct yourself according to the rules in such
cases made and provided."

"Oh, is that it? And they got you to tell me, did they? How sweet of
them!" observed Phil. "I might have guessed it from the look of Aunt
Josie's back as she went out the gate."

"Her back? Thunder! How did you see her back?"

"From the roof, Amy, if you must know. If you had three aunts who had
turned up every few minutes all your natural life to tell you what not
to do, you'd run for the roof, too, every time you heard the gate click.
And that last cook they put in the house was just a spy for them. But
she didn't spy long! I've bounced her!"

Amzi blinked and coughed, and feigned even greater ferocity.

"That's it! That's the kind of thing you've got to stop doing! You're
always bouncing the hired girls your aunts put in the house to take care
of you and you've got to quit; you've got to learn how to manage a
servant; you've got"--and he drew himself up to charge his words with
all possible dignity--"you've got to be a lady."

"You insinuate, Amy, that I'm not one, just natural born?"

"I don't mean any such thing," he blurted. "You know mighty well what I
mean--this skylarking, this galloping around town on your pony. You've
got to behave yourself; you've got to pay attention to what your aunts
tell you. You've got to listen to me!"

"Look me in the eye, you old fraud! I'll bet every one of 'em has called
you up to tell you to see me and give me a lecturing. They're a jolly
lot of cowards, that's all. And I ca