a reputation for doing
things, it goes hard to make a failure of them, and I should have been
much mortified. Fortunately there are plenty of pie shells, and there is
more pumpkin steamed, so that I can season and put them together in the
morning. But I am glad, dear child, that your conscience wouldn't let
you sleep comfortably until you had told; be careful, however, never
again to break your word. Remember the Van Starks' watchword, 'Love,
Truth, and Honor.' Now cuddle down here and go to sleep."

Ethelwyn, feeling much relieved, slept in the canopy bed with
grandmother, until long past daylight. When she came down-stairs, the
great golden pies were coming out of the oven, and the minister and his
wife violated propriety and made Grandmother Van Stark proud and happy
by eating two pieces each.

_CHAPTER XVII_
_Out at Grandmother's_

Grandmother's house, I tell you most emphatic,
Is full of good times from cellar to the attic.

There came to Grandmother Van Stark's one day, a forlorn black tramp
kitten, mewing dismally.

Ethelwyn, who loved kittens devotedly, was melted to the verge of tears
by his wailing appeals in a minor key; so she cuddled him and fed him on
Lady Babby's creamy, foamy milk. In the intervals of eating, however, he
still wailed like a lost soul.

"The critter don't stop crying long enough to catch a mouse," said cook,
eyeing the disconsolate bundle of grief with strong disfavor.

"He almost did this morning, Hannah," said Ethelwyn in his defense. "I
saw him watching a hole, and he's so little yet, I grabbed him away.
Besides, I don't like mice myself, and I was so afraid I'd see one or
two."

"No danger; his bawling will keep them away," said Hannah, grimly.

"O, well then, his crying is some good, after all," returned Ethelwyn,
triumphantly. "That's a good deal nicer than killing the poor little
things."

"Humph!" said Hannah.

But Grandmother Van Stark had given orders that Johnny Bear--so named
from one of Ernest Thompson-Seton's illustrations, which Ethelwyn
thought he resembled--was to be treated tenderly and fed often, because
Ethelwyn loved him, and she herself loved to feed hungry people and
animals.

But one morning there was a great commotion over the discovery that a
mouse had been in Grandmother Van Stark's room.

"This is a chance for Johnny Bear to make a reputation as a mouser,"
said grandmother. "We will take him up-stairs to-night and he shall have