uess again!" drawled the older of two strange boys, lolling on
suitcases in the middle of the yard.

"Well, those _are_ your names," Inez insisted.

"You look enough like you used to when you were here before, so we
can't be mistaken," said Mercedes primly.

"Can't, eh? Well, our names are Williard and Theodore no longer. We
are Billiard and Toady these days. Mind you don't forget! We've come
to stay till the folks get back----"

"Didn't you get our telegram telling you not to come?" demanded
belligerent Susie.

"Sure we did!"

"Then why didn't you stay at home?"

"'Cause ma had the arrangements all made to go across the ocean and
there wasn't anyone else to send us to. Grandma's away travelling, and
Aunt Helen's kids have got scarlet fever."

"But papa's in the hospital and mamma's there nursing him," said Irene
indignantly.

"Truly?" The boy called Toady spoke for the first time.

"Do you think I'm lying?"

"Well, ma said she bet it was all a bluff to keep us from coming out
here," Billiard explained, looking genuinely surprised at Irene's words.

"And anyway," supplemented Toady, "she said if it was true about your
father and mother being away to Los Angeles, there'd have to be someone
here to look after you kids, and two more wouldn't make much
difference."

"Specially when she's paying for our board!"

Tabitha, a silent spectator in the doorway, ground her teeth in
helpless rage, while Gloriana gasped audibly at the impudence of mother
and sons.

"It's no more'n right that you should pay board," Susie declared in
heat. "You make so much trouble wherever you go."

"Do, huh?" Billiard, frowning darkly, advanced threateningly toward
his outspoken cousin, with fists doubled up and an ugly sneer on his
face. But Susie was no coward, and when he shook his knuckles close to
her little pug nose to emphasize his words, the girl's arm shot out
unexpectedly and landed a blow fair and square on one eye.

With a yell of rage and pain, the surprised boy lunged forward, but
instead of confronting Susie, he found himself in the grasp of a tall,
irate young lady, who wore her shining black hair pinned up on top of
her head, although her skirts were still short enough to show a pair of
trim ankles. "Now stop right here!"

She spoke quietly, almost too quietly; but one look into the
smouldering depths of those big, black eyes was enough to cow the
bully, and he jerked himself free, muttering sulkily,