he and his brother slept.

Toady's pale face on the pillow made him pause on the threshold, while
a twinge of remorse tugged at his heart, but the victim, hearing the
creak of the opening door, opened his round eyes, and smiling
beatifically, asked in a weak voice, "Seen Tabitha?"

Billiard grunted an unintelligible reply.

"Tell you what, she's a crackerjack!" continued the invalid. Then, as
Billiard's only answer was a vicious jerk which divested him of collar
and waist at a single effort, Toady cried in surprise, "Why, Bill, have
you had your supper?"

"Don't want any!" growled the other, tugging savagely at his boots.

"What's the matter? Sick?"

"Headache!"

"_You_ didn't eat any castor-beans, did you?"

Billiard paused in the act of crawling into bed to glare angrily at his
brother, thinking he was being made fun of; but Toady's cherubic face
seemed to allay his suspicions, and he briefly, but savagely replied,
"Naw!"

"You better tell Tabitha--" began Toady in genuine solicitude; but
Billiard again misconstrued his brother's meaning, and interrupted,
"Aw, shut up! Let a feller alone for once, can't you?" And as
Billiard wriggled into bed, puzzled Toady lapsed into silence.

Tabitha, too, was puzzled by the older boy's actions. She had hoped
that the poisoning of his brother would awake his better nature if
nothing else would, so she was keenly disappointed, as well as
surprised, at the change which now took place in him.

"It seems so strange," she confided to Gloriana. "He acted so terribly
cut up the day he brought Toady home sick, that I thought it would cure
him of his mean mischief, at least. But now he seems bent on trying to
find the limit of human endurance--doubling his mischief and being more
aggravatingly hateful than ever."

"Perhaps he is getting even for Toady's reform," suggested the
red-haired girl, looking worried.

"Toady--bless the boy!" exclaimed Tabitha fervently. "I should go wild
if he had taken the streak Billiard has."

"And yet I can see how provoking it must be to Bill----"

"Why, Gloriana!"

"I mean that Toady's declaration of independence would naturally rouse
Bill's 'mad,' as Rosslyn says, when Toady had blindly followed his
leadership for so long. And besides, the way Toady flaunts his virtues
in his brother's face----"

"That _is_ rather amusing, isn't it?"

"Provoking? I should, say! Billiard has been used to saying the word
and Toady has obeyed