as a smart and intelligent girl. But she was a faithful
one, as well, and she kept the home together for Mr. Long and the
younger children, despite the fact that she could spend only a day once
in a while at home. A younger girl did many of the ordinary household
tasks, as well as looking after Master Tommy Long, an active piece of
mischief now four years old.

As the twins came up the walk before the little cottage they heard Tommy
bellowing at the top of his lungs--and they were perfectly sound lungs,
too!

"What have you got in here--a lion?" asked Dorothy, putting her head in
at the open door.

"Better say a monkey!" exclaimed Alice, much exasperated.

She was just then hustling Tommy across the floor so rapidly that the
toes of his shoes scarcely touched the carpet. Upstairs she went with
struggling, roaring Master Tommy, and in another moment he was shut into
a bedroom and the key turned in the lock.

"There!" gasped Alice, coming back and sitting down, after placing
chairs for her visitors. "You think I'm rather harsh with the little
plague? You don't know what he's done to-day."

"Has he been _very_ bad?" asked the tender-hearted Dorothy.

"I should say he has!"

"What's he done?" demanded Dora.

"It has certainly been one of Tommy's 'bad days.' You'd think he was
possessed. Poor mother! I can imagine the trouble she used to have with
Billy."

"But what did Tommy do?" asked Dorothy, bent on trying to plead for the
culprit, who was now alternately roaring and kicking the panels of the
door upstairs.

"One thing he did was to pour sand into my tub of clothes that I had to
leave this morning. He called the tub 'Lake Luna' and said he wanted to
make an island in the middle of it, like Cavern Island where Billy is
hidden."

"Oh!" gasped Dorothy.

"I had to clean out the tub and rinse the clothes half a dozen times to
get the sand out."

"But, Billy!" exclaimed Dora. "They say he isn't over at that island."

"Well, I wish I knew where he was," sighed the worried sister.

Just then Tommy stopped yelling and spoke in a shrill, but perfectly
plain tone:

"Sis! I'm a-goin' to bust a winder and fall out, I am!"

"Oh!" ejaculated Dorothy, jumping up. "He'll be hurt."

But Alice put forth a restraining hand to stop her before she could flee
to the rescue.

"Don't bother. He doesn't want to jump himself. Tommy is bluffing."

"Bluffing!" gasped Dora. "Did you ever? I should be scared to death that