ed, did seem very nice, though he was without his coat.

"I'm twenty minutes late now," growled Dick. "I've hunted everywhere
for my collar buttons and studs, and I can't find them."

CHAPTER V

DICK'S BUTTONS

Before Sister could say anything, in pranced Brother, very pink and
clean from his hot bath and treading on his gray bathrobe at every
other step.

"Have you been meddling with my things again?" demanded Dick. "Mother,
I've an engagement at eight o'clock and it's quarter past now; every
blessed collar button is gone from my chiffonier!"

Mother Morrison, who had followed Brother into the room, looked
anxiously at him.

"Brother, you haven't been in Dick's room today, have you?" she asked
him.

Then Sister, whose memory had been waking up, spoke.

"Please, Dick," she said in a very little voice. "Please, I had the
buttons."

"Oh, you did!" Dick quite forgot to smile at her. "What did you want
'em for? Where are they now?"

"You see, I was playing jackstones with Nellie Yarrow, and afterward
I--I left them in my pocket--" Sister's voice trailed off.

She recollected that the dress she had been wearing was now down the
laundry chute.

"Mother, something's got to be done!" fumed Dick. "I can't have the
kids going through my stuff and helping themselves to whatever they
want; those buttons were my solid gold ones and my good studs were in
the same box. There's the telephone!--Nina will be furious! Sister,
where did you say that dress was?"

Dick rushed downstairs to answer the telephone, leaving a sorrowful
Sister curled up in a forlorn little heap on the bed.

"My blue dress is way down in the laundry," she wailed. "The buttons
are in the pocket. Oh, Mother, it's awful far down there, and it's dark
on the stairs!"

"What's all the racket about?" inquired Ralph, coming to the door. "Is
Sister crying? And Dick is trying to smooth down Nina Carson, who seems
to be in a bad way. Want any help with these young ones, Mother?
Anyway, tell a fellow the cause of the excitement."

Sister smiled through her tears. "Young ones" was what Molly's country
sister had once called them, and Ralph always said it when he meant to
make her laugh.

"I really think Sister should go down and get the buttons from her
dress pocket," said dear Mother Morrison decidedly. "I have forbidden
her, time and again, to touch anything in Dick's room. Take your kimona
and slippers, Sister, and hurry; I'll have your bath