l when Sandy McQuarry was away. Inside this the Twelve
Tribes were shut up in Egyptian bondage until the garden was in bloom.
Even Isaac and Rebekah were permitted to promenade in the barnyard
only, among the dogs, cats and rabbits with which that interesting
place swarmed.

Within the house, too, the children accomplished a revolution. The
girls did nearly all the work, Hannah declared, and did it so swiftly
they left her in a state of dazed admiration. Of course, they were
liable to drop an unfinished task and take a sudden excursion to field
or wood, but, on the whole, even Mrs. Winters was forced to confess
that they were a caution, and no mistake, and might be smart
housekeepers some day, if Hannah would only make them behave.

Sometimes a doubt of their absolute perfection would darken, for a
moment, their foster-mother's placid sky, but even then her blame was
tempered with praise.

"Well! well! well!" she remarked one evening, "yous youngsters is awful
smart, that's a fact; but I'm 'most scared you're too smart."

This confession was wrung from her by the black-haired twin's dexterity
in catching a plate that the fair-haired one had let fall, and at the
same instant administering a sharp slap to the delinquent's ear.

Hannah was preparing the evening meal, with spasmodic assistance from
the family. She stood over the stove, frying pancakes, while the
orphans darted about her like swallows. Tim, always the swiftest, in
spite of his lameness, was rushing about in his usual capacity of
superintendent, cramming more wood into the already red-hot stove,
tasting the pancakes to see if they were just right, and rapping Joey
over the head with the dripping batter-spoon when he attempted to
follow his example. At brief intervals he would dart into the
dining-room to settle a dispute between the belligerent twins.

The latter were setting the table with the best china teaset, a
precious relic handed down from Jake's grandmother, and used only when
there was distinguished company. No visitors were expected to-night,
but the twins loved variety, and had arrayed the table in its best as a
pleasant surprise for daddy. Joey was busiest of all. He had wailed
loudly for a task, and Hannah had given him permission to fill the
woodbox and the water-bucket. He was diligently carrying out her
instructions, with one slight variation that showed him to be a true
orphan. He filled the bucket with sticks, and then went