ink we had better
leave it, and let Auntie Anna see us as we really are? She will only be
disappointed afterwards, if we begin by being tidy; and I don't like
disappointing people, do you?'

There was a shout of laughter when she finished speaking, and Barbara
frowned. She never knew why the boys laughed at her when she tried to
explain her reasons for doing things, but they always did.

'Is that why you have put on your very shortest frock?' asked Wilfred, who
was brewing something in a saucepan over the fire. 'I believe you think
that if Auntie Anna saw you for the first time in your Sunday frock, she
might suppose you were a nice, proper little girl, instead of----'

Barbara seized the sofa cushion and aimed it at him threateningly.
'Instead of what?' she demanded.

Wilfred was at a disadvantage, owing to his position as well as to the
precious quality of the liquid in the saucepan; and he felt it wiser to
make terms. 'Well,' he observed, 'you might at least have put on a longer
frock for the credit of the family; now, mightn't you?'

Barbara looked down at her blue serge skirt, edged with certain rows of
white braid that only made it look shorter; and she gave it a pull to make
it fall a little lower over the slim black legs that appeared beneath
it. 'It's not my fault that I have just come from a gymnastic class,'
she protested. 'Besides, my Sunday frock is only two inches longer! What
difference does two inches make, even if we _have_ got an aunt coming?
You're so particular, Wilfred.'

'Stick to your chemicals, Will, and leave the Babe alone,' growled Egbert,
who was trying to read a novel on the sofa and found the conversation
disturbing.

It was not often that the eldest of the family troubled himself about the
disputes of the others, and Barbara was encouraged to go on. 'Besides,'
she added, 'there isn't time to change now. Auntie Anna will arrive
directly; and who is going to tidy up the schoolroom if I don't?'

Certainly, no one responded to her appeal. Egbert and Wilfred became
suddenly and suspiciously interested in what they were doing, while the
two other boys, who were seated on the edge of the table, continued to
swing their legs lazily backwards and forwards without making an effort to
help her. Barbara turned upon them reproachfully.

'It is perfectly horrible of you to sit there laughing, when a strange
aunt and a strange daughter may be here at any minute!' she declared. 'I
think _you_ mi