y, he started down the path again, leaving Gail white-faced and
distressed in the kitchen door.

As soon as he was out of sight Peace slid from her perch to the ground
below, deserting the corncob doll she had been dressing, and scurried
away to the barn loft to face the new and undreamed-of situation. A
licking or pay for the damage done! Why had she been so thoughtless and
mean? She might have known that Gail would be the one to suffer. She
hated herself, as she always did after her mischievous pranks, but that
didn't help matters any. She must take her medicine. There was no money
to settle for her wanton mischief; it would have to be the licking.

"I wonder whether she'll use a shingle or her shoe," she thought
nervously, making ready to descend and brave Gail's displeasure, when
Cherry's head appeared on the ladder, and the older girl announced
excitedly, "Now you've done it, Peace Greenfield! Mr. Hartman is as mad
as a hornet about your painting his barn, and he says Gail must either
whip you hard, or pay for it. There isn't any money to pay--"

"Then I s'pose I'll have to take the licking," answered Peace with a
great show of indifference, though the pounding of her heart nearly
stifled her.

"But Gail says she can't lick you, and even Faith has backed out, though
at first she said she would give it to you good."

Here was an unlooked-for state of affairs--no money, and no one willing
to use the rod, though she undoubtedly deserved it.

"What are you going to do about it?" asked Cherry curiously.

"Lick myself likely," retorted Peace sarcastically. "You better lug
those eggs up to the doctor's. I've d'livered my bunch."

Cherry vanished as quickly as she had come, and as the sound of her
footsteps died away in the distance, Peace slid down the ladder. But
instead of going to the house for an interview with Gail, she slipped
through the garden, crawled under the fence, and presented herself at
the door of the new barn where Mr. Hartman, still in a blaze of anger,
was at work.

"What do you want here, you tormented rascal?" he yelled in fury,
shaking a hazel switch threateningly at her.

"I came to get licked," she answered steadily, though quaking inwardly.

"Wh-at?" he gasped in unbelieving amazement.

"I heard what you said to Gail about paying or licking me, and she
hasn't got any money to pay for my meanness, and she says--she says she
can't whip me; so I've come to you for it."

She really did