in her
mouth. Nothing could induce her to get in again.

"I'm goin' down in the dish-pan by myself," announced Bud from the shed
roof. "It jus' fits me."

John Jay grinned, and stood a little to one side to watch the
performance. "Go it, Brer Tarrypin!" he shouted.

Maybe Bud leaned a little too much to one side. Maybe the pan missed the
guiding legs that had held it steady before. At any rate something was
amiss, for half-way down the plank it spun dizzily around to one side,
and spilled the luckless Bud out on the chicken-coop. Usually he made
very little fuss when he was hurt, but this time he set up such a roar
that John Jay was frightened. When he saw blood trickling out of the
child's mouth, he began to cry himself. He was just about to run for
Aunt Susan, when Bud suddenly stopped crying, and turned toward him with
a look of terror.

"Aw, I done knock a tooth out!" he exclaimed, and began crying harder
than before, feeling that he had been damaged beyond repair.

John Jay laughed when he found that nothing worse had happened than the
loss of a little white front tooth, and soon dried Bud's tears by
promising that a new one would certainly fill the hole in time.

"Keep yoah mouf shet much as you can when Mammy comes home to-night," he
cautioned; "for I sut'n'ly don't want to ketch a lickin' on my buthday.
It's mighty lucky the pan didn't get a hole knocked in her."

Mammy came home just before dark. The children were on the fence waiting
for her. John Jay felt sure that if Miss Hallie knew that it was his
birthday she would send him something. He wondered if Mammy had told
her. The basket on the old woman's head was always interesting to these
children, for it never came back from Rosehaven empty. The cook always
saved the scraps for Sheba's hungry little charges. This evening John
Jay kept his eyes fixed on it expectantly, as he followed it up the
walk. He had thrown one foot up behind him, and rested the toes of it in
his clasped hands as he hopped along on the other. Maybe there might be
a birthday cake in that basket, with little candles on it. He didn't
know, of course,--but--_maybe_.

They all crowded around, as Sheba put the basket on the table and took
out some scraps of boiled ham, a handful of cookies, and half of an
apple pie. That was all. John Jay looked at them a moment with misty
eyes, and turned away with a lump in his throat. He was beginning to
grow discouraged.

Mammy was so tired tha