ngry with her; but the third morning bright and early they
appeared at the gate, unlatched it, and marched in solemn file up the
path to the house. Mrs. Wood herself, with Peace close behind, answered
their timid knock, and Ophelia, clad in a clean, neatly patched gingham
dress, with her hair hanging in two smooth plaits down her back,
faltered, "Ma wants to know would you like to get milk of us? The little
heifer has just come in fresh and we've got plently to sell."

"Ma'd 'a' come herself," piped up Vinie from the rear, "but she's sick
today."

"It's just a headache," hastily explained Tobias, beginning to scowl at
the family chatterbox, and then heroically smiling instead.

"She's lost another customer," confided Vinie, "a wash customer, 'cause
her tubs are so rusty, and it made her cry."

"But we're going to get her some new tubs," interrupted Antonio
excitedly, "and then we can come for your clo'es if you want us to."

"We've got seventy cents in our banks," said Augustus shyly.

"And if you need any wood chopped or piled, or carpets beat up, or
errands run, we'll be glad to do it for you--cheap," recited Tobias, in
a curious singsong voice, as if he had learned the words by rote.

"But what about the milk?" reminded Vinie, when the sudden pause which
followed had grown too oppressive.

"O!" Mrs. Wood roused to a realization that seven eager bodies were
listening for her answer. What should she say? Once more her eyes
travelled the length of the line. What a transformation had taken place!
Each face was polished till it fairly glistened in the sun, each pair of
bare, brown legs was clean and spotless, each fiery red head had been
brushed till not a hair was out of place, and each small figure was clad
in stiffly starched garments which looked as if they had just come from
the ironing board.

As if reading the unspoken question which burned on Mrs. Wood's lips,
Tobias informed her, "We've cleaned up for keeps."

"Ma's going to give us each a penny every week that we stay clean so's
not to need more'n one waist or dress in that time," eagerly explained
Antonio.

"'Cause, you see," tattled Vinie, "we ain't none of us got more'n two,
and we've got to stay clean so folks will buy our milk."

"That girl," lisped Humpy, pointing a stubby forefinger at Peace in the
doorway, "thaid we wuth too dirty."

"Oh!" Mrs. Wood was enlightened, and her memory flew back to a certain
day a few weeks before when Peace ha