foot; so it was no wonder her temper
had not suffered. Besides, it was expected of girls not to make a
fuss.

In view of these last circumstances, he suppressed the apology he was
about to make for his late unpleasant remarks.

"It never will do to give up too much to girls," he reasoned, draining
the last drop of cream from the pitcher.

"Your grandmamma is coming over from Brookline this afternoon in the
carriage, to take the two of you home with her to spind the night."

This was Kathleen back again at the nursery door, and wiping her face
with her apron as she unburdened herself of this forgotten bit of
news.

"You won't run away to sea now," besought Emily, with imploring eyes.

"Maybe I mightn't," shouted Will, tossing up his cap in glee at this
unexpected prospect of fun.

It was now only the middle of the long summer day. Such a tiresome
journey as the sun had to go before it rolled quite away in the west!
Will longed to give it a push, and to hurry up the clock to strike
five, the hour when they should be on their way to beautiful
Brookline.

Impatient little Will! Emily kindly helped him to get through with the
lagging time. At her suggestion, he played ball a while on the lawn,
while from time to time she nodded encouragingly to him through the
open window. By and by the ball bounded up into a spout, cuddling down
among some soft old maple leaves, where Will could not see it.
Thereupon Will came into the house in a great pet, storming about till
he was persuaded to sit on the floor and paste pictures in his
scrap-book.

This quiet occupation did not amuse him long. His fingers, his chin,
his cheeks, his curls even soon became stiff with mucilage. Mucilage
on his trouser knees, mucilage on his jacket elbows--in fact, mucilage
everywhere on and around him.

Emily, after having, with great painstaking, washed her brother and
all the surrounding furniture, proposed that he should study a Latin
lesson. The book soon went down with a bang. "Because," as Will
sulkily explained to his sighing sister, "it made his head buzz."

Emily gently suggested a French lesson as a corrective of this
unpleasant "buzz." The remedy soon proved to be a failure. The French
book came down more noisily than the Latin book.

Emily laid aside her drawing in despair. It was such a relief to hear
Kathleen's heavy step in the entry, and to remember it was time now
for Will to be dressed for dinner!

Poor Kathleen had a tha