Grandmother was very silent and thoughtful all evening and the twins were miserable. When bedtime came she kissed them both good-night very gravely and said:

"You must consider yourself a sort of prisoner all day to-morrow, Kit. I shall trust you not to go off the place. Your grandfather will be home to-morrow night and I am leaving your punishment to him."

Jo Perkins, too, suffered the tortures of suspended judgment all the next day. He fulfilled his usual daily tasks about the stable, but Joshua gave him no instructions and Perk found a great many idle hours hanging heavily on his hands. He felt sadly left out of the busy farm-life.

In the afternoon, Letty drove Mrs. Hartwell-Jones out to see grandmother and to find out if Mrs. Baker were any the worse for her scare. Letty drove the ponies down to the stable and found Perk moping by himself in the harness room.

"h.e.l.lo, what's the matter?" she asked sympathetically.

"I'm wondering what I'll do when I leave here," replied Perk bluntly.

"Why, Perk, are you going away? I hadn't heard that."

"I guess I'll get sent away-after yesterday's doings."

"Oh, no you won't. Of course you did not do as you should have done yesterday, but Mr. and Mrs. Baker will forgive you, I'm sure. They are not the kind to shunt a person off without more of a trial than that.

You just go to Mr. Baker when he gets home and tell him straight out that you're sorry and will try to do better next time."

"I 'most let Kit drown, too," said Perk, and related the incident of the swimming pool, which Letty had not heard before.

"Well of course it was naughty to take Kit in swimming when you knew his grandfather did not allow it. But it was not really your fault about his cramp. And besides, Kit had had some lessons in swimming, you say. It was not as if he did not know anything at all about it. Anyway, you make a clean breast of it all to Mr. Baker. That's the best way, always, and I'm pretty sure that he'll forgive you and let you stay."

But Perk could not be cheered so easily, and set about unharnessing the ponies in a glum fashion so different from his usual whistling gayety that even Punch and Judy felt the difference.

Letty went straight to Mrs. Baker and told her how badly Perk felt.

"I hope you and Mr. Baker won't send him away," she pleaded. "He's a good boy, but it will make him reckless and bitter if he should be turned off now. He'll think that if people make so much of a small matter, there won't be much punishment left for big wrongs, and that it isn't worth while to be good. Please, dear Mrs. Baker, don't think I'm trying to preach to you, but I heard my brother talk that way once-he had been dismissed from a situation for some little carelessness-and although I was very young at the time, I've never forgotten how he felt about it. I hope you won't send Perk away?"

Letty's cheeks were very red and her voice trembled, half with eagerness in pleading Perk's cause, and half with fear at her own daring.

"Such a thing never entered my mind, Letty," replied grandmother earnestly. "Of course we should do nothing so severe. But Jo must be made to realize how serious his wrong-doing of yesterday was. For it is very wrong indeed to neglect or betray a trust, you know, however slight the consequences may prove. And Letty, dear, remember that it is the little things, after all, that count in life. The pennies go to make the dollars and the swift little seconds form years. Think of the infinitesimal animals at work in the sea, adding bit to bit through the centuries to make those wonderful coral islands we read about.

"And it is the same with the naughtinesses in the world. If a wee sin is committed here and another there, and pardoned or overlooked with the thought, 'oh, that did no harm-it was not really wrong,' why in time the conscience will become hardened and the first thing one knows, one is in a condition to commit any wicked deed."

Letty looked up with a serious face, from Mrs. Baker to Mrs.

Hartwell-Jones, who had sat quietly by during grandmother's little homily.

"I never thought before how very great the little things are, Mrs.

Baker," she said. "I hope I can learn to be more careful after this."

"You are a good, faithful child, and my lecture was not meant for you, dear. I am glad you spoke for Jo Perkins. Of course we shall not dismiss him. It would be wrong to set him adrift for so slight an offense; we must make the punishment fit the wrong-doing. The offense this time is slight because it turned out all right, but it might have proved very serious. You know that Christopher tried to swim and was taken with a cramp in his arm?"

"Perk told me just now. He feels awfully about it."

"That is news to me," exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. "No wonder you are feeling nervous and upset over the 'might-have-beens.'"

"Yes," replied grandmother with a little shudder. "I don't know what to say about it because of course Christopher was not actually forbidden to swim. We did not think about such a question arising. But grandfather will be home to-night, and then everything will be all right."

"What a comfort to have a strong arm to lean upon," sighed Mrs.

Hartwell-Jones wistfully. Then she turned to Letty. "Run off now and play, child. Jane is hopping her toes through her shoes with impatience."

Letty ran off and the two ladies discussed every detail of Christopher's mishap, and how seriously it might have turned out.

"Children can be the greatest sort of cares," Mrs. Hartwell-Jones said at length, half laughing but wholly in earnest, "almost nuisances sometimes; but they are a blessing for all that!" She paused a moment and then added: "Have you noticed what a fine nature Letty has, Mrs.

Baker? What a splendid chance for the development of a n.o.ble character?"

"I think that what you have agreed to do for her is a wonderful opportunity for the child."

"But I should like the tie to be still closer, Mrs. Baker," exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones impulsively. "I am wondering-I desire something very much, and yet I am not sure that it is wise. I have no one to go to for advice except my lawyer. I have consulted him, but he is so cold and businesslike. Might I talk it over with you, Mrs. Baker?"

"Do you mean," asked grandmother, a look of eager interest kindling in her eyes, "do you mean that you are considering the question of adopting Letty?"

"Just that," replied Mrs. Hartwell-Jones solemnly. "I am thinking about it a great deal-all the time, in fact. You see, there are so many, many reasons why I should do it, and so few why I should not; that is, that I can see."

"That is apt to be the way with things we want very much to do," said grandmother mildly. "But as far as I understand the matter, I agree with you. Will you tell me all about it, please?"

And while Letty played out in the orchard with Jane at being Knights of the Round Table, her fairy G.o.dmother (as she secretly thought of Mrs.

Hartwell-Jones) revealed to Grandmother Baker a plan which, if carried out, would bring to Letty a more wonderful future than any of which she had ever dreamed.

CHAPTER XVI

UNTYING THE Ap.r.o.n-STRINGS

When grandfather got home he was acquainted promptly with the misdoings of Christopher and Jo Perkins. After the expected thrashing had been given-much against grandfather's tender heart-and Perk had had his stern lecture, without a word in it of dismissal-to his mingled astonishment and surprised relief-grandfather went into the sitting-room to talk events over with grandmother. Perk and Christopher both felt that great loads had been lifted off their minds. They had suffered penitence and had been punished for their wrong-doing, and they were free agents again.

"My dear," said grandmother, after she had described minutely all her feelings during Christopher's prolonged absence the afternoon before, "My dear, I have been thinking."

"Not really!" interjected grandfather with pretended great astonishment, and chuckled.

"Yes, I have, seriously, and I have come to the conclusion that we coddle Kit too much; treat him too much as we treat Jane-too much like a girl, in fact."

Grandfather looked genuinely surprised this time.

"I begin to think that there is something in this 'telepathy' that the newspapers talk about," he said, taking an envelope from his pocket.

"Just read this letter from Kit's father. I got it at the post-office on my way home this evening."

Grandmother took her son's letter and put on her gla.s.ses. Grandfather pointed out the page to which he wished to draw her special attention.

"That is the part I meant," he said and grandmother read:

"'I have been thinking a good deal lately about Kit's and Jane's comradeship. Doesn't it strike you and mother that we make too little distinction? We are anxious that the children should be congenial, and in trying to keep their tastes alike and yet have Jane gentle and ladylike, isn't there some danger of making Kit girly-girly?

"'After all, Kit is a boy and Jane is a girl. They will have to draw apart some day and I am wondering if the time has not come to begin.

Aren't there some nice village boys in or about Hammersmith? There used to be. Suppose you let Kit play with them a bit and rough it like other fellows do. Now that you have found Letty again and she is as nice a child as she was three years ago, she will make a nice playmate for Janey, who won't miss Kit so much. I really think it will do them both good.'