“But you can’t make Catherine tell her father,” Doris pointed out. “And you don’t want to tell him yourself—you told her you wouldn’t.”
Elizabeth Ann shook her head so that her red tam almost fell off.
“No, of course I wouldn’t tell,” she declared. “But I am going to think and think and by and by I’ll find a way.”
Doris had great respect for Elizabeth Ann’s thinking powers and she watched her anxiously the rest of the day. Catherine was absent from school, so when they left the bus at the cross-roads in the later afternoon, only Roger was with them. He turned off at the lane leading to the Bostwick farm, and as soon as they were alone, Elizabeth Ann turned eagerly to Doris.
“I know what to do!” she exclaimed. “I’ve thought it all out—first we ask Uncle Hiram to promise that he will tell Mr. Gould about Catherine—how she hid the candy and forgot to fasten the door and then let him think Roger did it. But before Uncle Hiram tells Mr. Gould, he must make him promise that he won’t scold Catherine.”
“She ought to be scolded,” said Doris sternly. She didn’t like to be scolded herself, mind you, but she didn’t mind seeing other people get their “comeuppance,” as Aunt Grace called it.
“Well, perhaps,” Elizabeth Ann admitted, “but we can’t help that. If Catherine thinks she is going to be scolded, she will never tell. And if we can promise her no one will say a word, she won’t mind telling. We want Roger to stop working for Mr. Gould—never mind about Catherine.”
“Yes, but how can you tell Uncle Hiram when you said you wouldn’t?” asked the practical Doris.
“I’m going to see Catherine now and ask her to let me tell,” Elizabeth Ann explained. “You go on to the house and tell Aunt Grace where I am; I’ll come as soon as I see Catherine.”
Doris went on, grumbling that the plan wouldn’t work. But the surprising thing about it was that it did, it worked out exactly as Elizabeth Ann planned. Catherine said if her daddy wouldn’t scold or punish her, she didn’t mind having Uncle Hiram tell what had happened. And Uncle Hiram, though at first he said he wouldn’t ask Mr. Gould to make any silly promises, finally consented. He told him the story Elizabeth Ann had told him—about the corncrib door and the candy, and Catherine’s fear that led her to shift the blame to Roger.