eady for
anything. But then," she added, half-playfully, "you forget we're
prisoners, like the princes in the Tower!"

"Not prisoners at all now," he exclaimed, "unless the storm should prove
your jailer. Circumstances have changed; and you are free as air."

"Let me see, what shall we have," he went on, taking no notice of the
D's' surprise at this happy turn of affairs, and speaking slowly and
deliberately--just as if he had not settled that matter with Liddy some
days ago!--"Let me see. What _shall_ it be? Ah, I have a happy thought!
We'll try a house-picnic!"

"What's that, Uncle?" asked Dorry, half-suspiciously.

"You don't know what a house-picnic is!" exclaimed Uncle George with
pretended astonishment. "Well, upon my word!"

It did not occur to him to mention that the idea of a house-picnic was
purely an invention of his own; nor did he suspect that it was one which
could have found favor only in the brain of a doting and rich bachelor
uncle.

"Now, Uncle, do--don't!" coaxed Dorry; and Don echoed, laughingly: "Yes,
Uncle, do--don't!" But he was as eager as she to hear more.

"Why, my dears, a house-picnic means this: It means the whole house
thrown open from ten in the morning till ten at night. It means fun in
the garret, music and games in the parlor, story-telling in odd corners,
candy-pulling in the kitchen, sliding-curtains, tinkling bells, and
funny performances in the library; it means almost any right thing
within bounds that you and about thirty other youngsters choose to make
it, with the house thrown open to you for the day."

"No out-of-doors at all?" asked Donald, doubtfully, but with sparkling
eyes.

"Oh, yes, a run or two when you wish, for fresh air's sake; but from
present appearances, there'll be drizzling days all the week, I suspect,
and that will make your house-picnic only the pleasanter."

"So it will! How splendid!" cried Dorry. "Jack can take the big covered
wagon and go for the company, rain or not, while Don and you and I plan
the fun. We'll try all sorts of queer out-of-the-way things. Good for
the house-picnic!"

"Good for the house-picnic!" shouted Donald, becoming almost as
enthusiastic as Dorry.

"Oh, Uncle," she went on, "you are too lovely! How _did_ you happen to
think of it?"

"Well, you see," said Uncle, with the glow-look, as Liddy called it,
coming to his face, "I thought my poor princes in the Tower had been
rather good and patient under the persecutions of