nglers, or anything like that. With Father in the
background she comes sailin' up smilin', and it ain't until she gets a
peek under the mush-bowl lid that her expression changes.

"Why, Gladys!" she gasps.

"Now, Mummah!" protests Gladys peevish. "For goodness sake don't
begin--anyway, not here!"

"But--but, my dear!" goes on Mother, starin' at her shocked.
"That--that hat! And your hair! And--and your face!"

"Oh, bother!" says Gladys, stampin' her high-heeled pump. "You'd like
to have me dress like Cousin Tilly, I suppose?"

"But you know I asked you not to--to have that done to your hair
again," says Mother.

"And I said I would, so there!" says Gladys emphatic.

Mother sighs and turns to Father, who is makin' his inspection with a
weary look on his face. He's just an average, stout-built,
good-natured lookin' duck, Father is, a little bald in front, and just
now he's rubbin' the bald spot sort of aimless.

"You see, Arthur," says Mother. "Can't you do something?"

First Father scowls, and then he flushes up. "Why--er--ah--oh, blast
it all, Sallie, don't put it up to me!" says he. Then he pulls out a
long black cigar, bites the end off savage, and beats it around the
corner.

That was a brilliant move of his; for Mother turns out to be one of the
weepy kind, and in a minute more she's slumped into a chair and is
sobbin' away. She's sure she don't know why Gladys should do such
things. Hadn't she forbid her to use so much rouge and powder? Hadn't
she asked her not to wear those hideous ear jewels? And so on and so
on, with Gladys standin' back poutin' defiant. But, say, when they get
too big to spank, what else can Father and Mother do?

Fin'lly Vee seems to have an idea. She whispers it into Marjorie's
ear, slips into the house, and comes back with a hand mirror and a damp
washcloth, which she proceeds to offer to Gladys, suggestin' that she
use it.

"Indeed I sha'n't!" says Gladys, her big eyes flashin' scrappy. "I
shall stay just as I am, and if Mother wants to be foolish she can get
over it, that's all!" And Gladys switches over to a porch chair and
slams herself into it.

Vee looks at her a minute, and then bites her upper lip like she was
keepin' back some remarks. Next she whispers again to Marjorie, who
passes it on to Mother, and then the three of 'em disappears in the
house, leavin' Gladys poutin' on one side of the front door, and me in
a porch swing on the other waitin' f