"You'll need a two-horse load, anyway to have enough for a pillow of the size Nell has planned," he said, grinning. "And perhaps she'll finish it if you help her, Ruth. She's always trying to do some big thing and 'falling down' on it."
"That's not so, Master Sauce-box!" cried his sister.
Tom went off laughing, and the two girls set to work on the great mass of buttercups they had already picked. They grew so large, and were so dewey and golden, that a more brilliant bed of color one could scarce imagine than the pillow, as it began to grow under the dexterous hands of Helen and Ruth. And, being alone together now, they began to grow confidential.
"And how does the Ogre treat you?" asked Helen. "I thought, when I came this morning, that you had been feeling badly."
"I am not very happy," admitted Ruth.
"It's that horrid Ogre!" cried Helen.
"It isn't right to call Uncle Jabez names," said Ruth, quietly. "He is greatly to be pitied, I do believe. And just now, particularly so."
"You mean because of the loss of that cash-box?"
"Yes."
"Do you suppose there was much in it?"