"Theodore, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Miss Billy was almost crying now. "Think of father when he hears all this,—and Beatrice's feelings,—and the awful remarks they will make about us——"
"If you are looking for your handkerchief, you're sitting on it," said Theodore soberly. "Don't cry, Billy. I am going to father now and make a clean breast of the whole affair. There's no use staying to console Beatrice about the yeast. She'll have fifty sporadic spasms!"—and he strode from the room.
"Oh, dear,—this has been a day of nothing but troubles," sighed Miss Billy, wiping her eyes,—"and I lost my temper the very first thing over a shoe-lace, and everything has gone crooked ever since. Poor Beatrice,—she tries to be so nice and ladylike,—and I know she will never get over this,—never!"
[CHAPTER VIII]
THE STORY OF HORATIUS
“They held a council, standing
Before the river gate.
Short time was there, ye well may guess
For musing or debate.
Out spake the council roundly
‘The bridge must straight go down,
For since Janiculum is lost,
Naught else can save the town.’”
THE sun had risen early to get a good start, and at nine o'clock was shining down with relentless fury on Cherry Street. Theodore was wont to declare that the rain was wetter and the dew damper and the sun hotter on this street than in any other portion of the inhabited globe; and it was certainly true that the rows of small houses, unprotected by trees or awnings, did look unusually torrid in the broad glare of light.
In the Lee house the shutters were closed and the green shades drawn down, but the heat seemed to radiate from the painted door, on the south porch, where a small red-headed boy was trying to ring the door bell. It was a long reach for the little arms, and after raising himself so high upon his tiptoes that he nearly lost his balance, he gave up the attempt, and thumped lustily upon the panel. There was no response. He waited a moment, his small bare feet squirming about uneasily upon the hot floor, and then rapped a second time and a third. At the last knock another small red-roofed boy appeared over the top of the board fence that separated the Canary yard from the Lee home.