sharp,
imperative whispers, Peace led the way into the hall, leaped onto the
banisters, boy-fashion, and slid quickly, quietly to the floor below,
where she waited in a fever of impatience for her less daring sisters to
creep backward down the creaking stairs. "Skip that one, it squeaks like
fury--oh, Allee, what a racket! There, I knew you'd do it! Gail's awake.
Sh! Girls!"

They held their breath, huddled close in the darkest corner of the hall,
and waited.

"Peace!" again came the call from above.

A happy inspiration seized the small culprit, and she snored vigorously.
Cherry and Allee clapped both hands over their mouths to stifle their
giggles, but Gail was evidently satisfied, for she did not repeat her
summons; and after another moment of hushed waiting, the half-dressed,
dishevelled trio tiptoed down the hall, cautiously unlocked the kitchen
door and slipped out into the sweet freshness of the early day.

There was a quick scampering of little feet down the walk, a subdued
click of the gate, and the three children, holding hands, raced madly
along the dusty road until a thick hedge of sumac and hazel bushes hid
them from the little brown house. Then Peace slackened her gait
somewhat, but did not cease running, and kept looking behind her as if
still fearing pursuit or discovery.

"Oh, Peace," gasped Allee at last, stumbling blindly over sticks and
stones as her older sisters dragged her along between them, "my dress is
coming off, and my breath is all in chunks. Do we have to run the
_whole_ way?"

Peace looked back at the small, perspiring figure, saw the plump
shoulders from which the unbuttoned dress had slipped, caught a glimpse
of flying shoestrings, rumpled stockings and naked legs, as the little
feet were jerked unceremoniously over humps and hollows of the rough
road-way, and stopped so abruptly that her companions were thrown
headlong into the dust, creating such a commotion that a weary slumberer
on the opposite side of the thicket was rudely startled out of his nap,
thinking some great catastrophe had overtaken him. As he sat up and
rubbed his eyes, looking around him in bewilderment for the cause of his
sudden awakening, he heard an angry voice sputter shrilly, "Well, Peace
Greenfield, I must say--"

"Don't stop to say it now," interrupted another childish voice. "I never
meant to dump you over like that. You shouldn't have been running so
fast. S'posing you had been a train and tumbled in