the strings. One after another she tested the open notes.
Gradually her stroke ceased to tremble and she drew the bow firmly. Then
her fingers began to fall and softly, slowly she searched up and down
those strings for sounds she knew. Standing in the middle of the floor,
she tried over and over. It seemed scarcely a minute before the hall was
filled with the sound of hurrying feet, and she was forced to put away
the violin and go to her classes. The next day she prayed that the
violin would be left again, but her petition was not answered. That
night when she returned from the school she made an excuse to go down
to see Billy. He was engaged in hulling walnuts by driving them through
holes in a board. His hands were protected by a pair of Margaret's old
gloves, but he had speckled his face generously. He appeared well, and
greeted Elnora hilariously.

"Me an' the squirrels are laying up our winter stores," he shouted. "Cos
the cold is coming, an' the snow an' if we have any nuts we have to fix
'em now. But I'm ahead, cos Uncle Wesley made me this board, and I
can hull a big pile while the old squirrel does only ist one with his
teeth."

Elnora picked him up and kissed him. "Billy, are you happy?" she asked.

"Yes, and so's Snap," answered Billy. "You ought to see him make the
dirt fly when he gets after a chipmunk. I bet you he could dig up pa, if
anybody wanted him to."

"Billy!" gasped Margaret as she came out to them.

"Well, me and Snap don't want him up, and I bet you Jimmy and Belle
don't, either. I ain't been twisty inside once since I been here, and I
don't want to go away, and Snap don't, either. He told me so."

"Billy! That is not true. Dogs can't talk," cautioned Margaret.

"Then what makes you open the door when he asks you to?" demanded Billy.

"Scratching and whining isn't talking."

"Anyway, it's the best Snap can talk, and you get up and do things he
wants done. Chipmunks can talk too. You ought to hear them damn things
holler when Snap gets them!"

"Billy! When you want a cooky for supper and I don't give it to you it
is because you said a wrong word."

"Well, for----" Billy clapped his hand over his mouth and stained his
face in swipes. "Well, for--anything! Did I go an' forget again! The
cookies will get all hard, won't they? I bet you ten dollars I don't say
that any more."

He espied Wesley and ran to show him a walnut too big to go through the
holes, and Elnora and Margaret entered