ys started out of the store.

"Oh, Mrs. MacCall didn't send us," Dot explained.

"No? Are dey for de poy's mutter!"

"Oh, no. You see, Mrs. Kranz," Dot said gravely, "we're going to be
pirates, and we have to have a stock of things to eat. Don't we, Sammy?"

"Come along," growled Sammy, fearful that they would be laughed at.

But Mrs. Kranz was befogged. She had never before heard of pirates, and
she did not know whether it was a game, a lodge one belonged to, or a
picnic. She guessed it was the last, however, for she bade them a hearty
farewell and hoped they would have a pleasant day.

As they came out there was Joe Maroni himself, the neat, smiling, brown
little Italian in his corduroy suit and with gold rings in his ears,
ready waiting with a basket piled high with fruit.

"For the leetle padrona," Joe said, with a smiling bow, sending his
usual gift to Ruth, whom he considered a grand signora and, as his
"landlady," deserving of such thoughtful attentions.

"Aw, say!" cried Sammy his eyes growing big; "that's scrumptious."

"But they are for Ruthie," complained Dot. "We'll have to lug them all
around with us--and no knowing when we'll get home from being pirates."

"Get _home_!" snorted the boy. "Why, we can't never go home again. If
they catch us they'll hang us in chains."

Dot's mouth became suddenly a round "O" and nothing more, while her eyes
Neale O'Neil would have said had he seen them, "bulged out." The
assurance in Sammy's tone seemed final. She could not go home again! And
"hanging in chains" somehow had an awfully creepy sound.

But as the boy himself did not seem to take these terrible possibilities
very seriously, Dot took comfort from that fact and went on again
cheerfully. Nor did she mind carrying the basket of attractive fruit.
One of the peaches on top was a little mellow and she stuck a tentative
finger into the most luscious spot she could see upon the cheek of that
particular peach.

The juice was just as sweet! She touched it with her finger again and
then put the finger to her lips.

By this time they had come out of Meadow Street and were crossing the
open common toward the canal. On one hand was a blacksmith shop, and the
smith was getting ready to shoe a pair of mules which, with drooping
ears and saddened aspect, waited in the shade.

There was no moving boat on the canal and nothing stirring along the
towpath. But a battered looking old barge was moored to the nigh bank,