t ready to
burst; so, of course, it was necessary to let off steam, which we did by
drawing a little water at a time from the faucet into one of our yellow
dishes, and tilting it back again as soon as the dish was full, beside
"tooting," as loud as we could, to represent the commotion going on to
perfection. We were soon so busy over this, that we forgot all about
the front basement windows for ever so long, until we heard Aunt Elsie
calling out, "Tom! Tom! where are you?"

"Here I am, Aunt Elsie! come right along! Here we all are, washing the
windows for you as nice as anything!"

Down marched Aunt Elsie, short order; and the minute she came into the
basement we heard her give an "O----h!" about a quarter of a mile long.
We all rushed to ask what was the matter; and such a pickle as the
windows were in you never did see. The soap was in streaks, and smears,
and lumps all over the panes, making them look as if somebody had spilt
a lot of hasty pudding on them, and it had stuck fast. Of course, as we
left them so long, the soap had hardened on; and poor Nelly, frightened
half out of her wits, began to cry. That put me up, I can tell you; I
was determined Aunt Elsie shouldn't scold her; so I begged her not to be
angry with anybody but me, for it wasn't their fault at all.

"And I must say you are old enough to know better, Tom," said my aunt,
looking at me reproachfully over the tops of her spectacles; "and as a
punishment, you must get all the soap off the window before you have any
dinner. The children had better go home."

But now, what do you think that darling of a Nelly, and Jimmy did? They
declared I shouldn't do it all alone by myself, but they would stay and
help me; so, after Aunt Elsie had been coaxed to let us, we filled our
dishes again, and went to work as busy as bees. It was pretty hard work
getting the soap off, but we made a joke of it, and by the time the
windows were fairly polished up, as bright as new pins, we were in a
perfect frolic. I expect Nelly's bright eyes had something to do with
it, for Aunt Elsie, after we had finished, and come shouting to her with
our faces as red as fire, and considerable brown soap on us in spots,
said, "we were famous workpeople," and gave us New Year's cookies, and
almonds, and raisins for lunch. I had a Philopoena among my nuts,
which I ate with Nelly; and pretty soon after they went home.

I did hope she would catch me on the Philopoena, because I had
somethin