the Girls' Guild which Janice had founded;
but it was a long walk to the Union Church and Janice really wondered
how they ever got over the road in stormy weather.

It always puzzled Janice where so many children managed to sleep when
bedtime came, unless they followed the sea law of "watch and watch."
Now all the children who were at home poured out of the cabin to greet
the driver of the Kremlin car. The whole family, as now arrayed before
her, she had not seen since Christmas.

She had not forgotten to bring a great bag of "store cakes," of which
these poor little Trimminses were inordinately fond; so most of them
soon drifted away, each with a share of the goodies, leaving Janice to
talk with Mrs. Trimmins and Jinny and play with Buddy and the baby.

"It's a right pretty evening, Miss Janice," said Mrs. Trimmins. "I
shell be glad enough when the settled weather comes to stay. I kin git
some o' these young'uns out from under foot all day long, then.

"Trimmins has got a gang wo'kin' for him over th' mountain a piece----"

"Here comes dad now," said the sharp-eyed Virginia. "And the elder's
with him."

"Why--ya-as," drawled her mother, "so 'tis. It's one of Concannon's
timber lots Trimmins is a-wo'kin' at."

The elder, vigorous and bewhiskered, came tramping into the clearing
like a much younger man. Trimmins slouched along by his side, chewing
a twig of black birch.

"No, Trimmins," the elder was saying decisively. "We'll stick to the
letter of the contract. I furnish the team and feed them. I went a
step further and furnished supplies for three men instead of two. But
not one penny do you nor they handle till the job is finished."

"That's all right, Elder," drawled the Georgian. "That's 'cordin' to
contrac', I know. I don't keer for myself. But Narnay and that other
feller are mighty hongree for a li'le change."

"Powerful thirsty, ye mean!" snorted the elder.

"Wa-al--mebbe so! mebbe so!" agreed Trimmins, with a weak grin.

"They knew the agreement before they started in with you on the job,
didn't they?"

"Oh, ya-as. They knowed about the contrac'."

"'Nuff said, then," grunted the elder. "Oh! is that you, Janice Day?
I'll ride back with you," added the elder, who had quite overcome his
dislike for what he had formerly termed "devil wagons," since one very
dramatic occasion when he himself had discovered the necessity for
traveling much "faster than the law allowed."

"You are ve