looked out, and there was
Sammy, standing with his innocent fat face as close to the dining-room
shutters as he could hold it, with his fingers in his mouth, uttering
shrill whistles loud and long and hard and fast enough to rouse the
whole neighbourhood. Beth, impatient of such stupidity, returned to
the dining-room and sat down again, leaving Sammy to his fate.

Presently Mrs. Caldwell started wide awake.

"What _is_ that noise, Beth?" she exclaimed.

"It seems to be somebody whistling outside," Beth answered in deep
disgust. Then her exasperation got the better of her self-control, and
she jumped up, and ran out to the kitchen.

"Harriet," she said between her clenched teeth, "go out and send that
silly fool away."

Harriet hastened to obey; but at the opening of the front door, Sammy
bolted.

The next evening he began again, however, as emphatically as before;
but Beth could not stand such imbecility a second time, so she ran out
of the back-gate, and seized Sammy.

"What are you doing there?" she cried, shaking him.

"Why, you told me to whistle," Sammy remonstrated, much aggrieved.

"Did I tell you to whistle like a railway engine?" Beth demanded
scornfully. "You've no sense at all, Sammy. Go away!"

"Oh, do let's come in, Beth," Sammy pleaded. "I've something to tell
you."

"What is it?" said Beth ungraciously.

"I'll tell you if you'll let me come in."

"Well, come then," Beth answered impatiently, and led the way up over
the roof to the acting-room. "What is it?" she again demanded, when
she had lighted a scrap of candle and seated herself on the steps. "I
don't believe it's anything."

"Yes, it is, so there!" said Sammy triumphantly. "But I'll lay you
won't guess what it is. Mrs. Barnes has got a baby."

Mrs. Barnes was the wife of the head-master of the Mansion-House
School, and all the little boys, feeling that there was more in the
event than had been explained to them, were vaguely disgusted.

"I don't call that anything," Beth answered contemptuously. "Lots of
people have babies."

"Well," said Sammy, "I wouldn't have thought it of him."

"Thought what of whom?" Beth snapped in a tone which silenced Sammy.
He ventured to laugh, however.

"Don't laugh in that gigantic way, Sammy," she exclaimed, still more
irritated. "When you throw back your head and open your mouth so wide,
I can see you have no wisdom-teeth."

"You're always nasty now, Beth," Sammy complained.

Which was true