ink of the cake. Isn't it
lucky I did? I wasn't quite sure he took it, but seeing that my tramp
didn't do it, I knew it must be someone in town, and I couldn't think of
anyone else mean enough. Good-bye!"

She ran lightly down the steps and away toward home, chanting to
herself, "He had to pay up, he had to pay up!" Suddenly she halted by
the roadside and listened. "Yes, sir! That's Hec a-howling! I guess the
Judge got hold of that strap again. Well, he deserves a good licking,
but I'm glad I'm not there to see him dance."

CHAPTER XVI

THE STATE FAIR CAKE

"What are you doing with all that torn-up paper, Peace?" asked Allee,
finding her sister busy stripping old papers into tiny shreds up in the
barn loft, after she had searched all over the place for her.

"I want to make a map like Hope's class had to," answered Peace, pouring
an apronful of scraps into a bucket of scalding water. "I asked her how
she did it, and she said they drew the maps first, and then mixed up a
lot of blotters in boiling water. I hunted all over the place for
blotters, and couldn't find but four, so I'm trying these newspapers.
They make an awful looking mess, but I guess they will work. You can
tear paper if you want to."

Allee took the hint, and accepting the magazine Peace offered her, she
fell to pulling it to pieces, adding her mite to the mixture in the
pail. "How many must you have?" she ventured to ask, after an hour at
this monotonous occupation.

"I guess this will be enough," answered the older girl, critically
examining the nasty mess, and stirring it so energetically that a goodly
portion of it flew out of the bucket into her lap.

"Have you drawn a map?" Allee inquired, looking around the dingy loft in
quest of such an article.

"No--o, I can't seem to get a good one. The first time I tried, it
looked like an elephant with two trunks, and the second time the
Mississippi River came out of the middle of Florida. In this last
picture, the land is so fat there isn't any room for the ocean. But I
found two old g'ographies in that heap of trash, and Gail said I could
have them. So I've pulled out all the maps of the United States that I
could find, and now I'm ready to cut them out. Then we'll paste them
onto that board and stick the paper _mush_ on top."

"Why do you want so many all alike?" asked the inquisitive little
sister, watching the shining scissors snip in and out around capes and
peninsulas with painstak