"No, you don't," replied Roger emphatically, and seizing his coat he made a run for liberty, escaping through the front door and slamming it after him.
CHAPTER VI
ETHEL BROWN A HEROINE
DICKY was no longer asleep. Roger's slamming of the front door had roused him and after drowsily rubbing his eyes he had rolled off his cot and stared out of the window to see in what direction Roger was going, for he recognized the footsteps of the brother he admired extravagantly.
Not seeing him from the front window he turned the latch of the door that opened on the upper porch and looked out toward Mayville.
Again there was no Roger and the youngster, still only half awake, wandered about the room hunting for amusement. The house was perfectly quiet, for the Ethels, tired after their strenuous afternoon, were lying in the hammocks behind the house, Ethel Blue working on a new basket and Ethel Brown drawing a design that she hoped to develop into a stencil.
Dicky's cot was in Helen's room and she had accumulated on her bureau a variety of souvenirs, most of which were pinned to the muslin that framed her dressing glass. Dicky climbed on a chair and examined them attentively. Most of them seemed to him quite valueless and he wondered that a person as grown up as Helen should want to keep them.
Wandering into his mother's room his eye was attracted by a shining tray on which stood an alcohol lamp. A box of matches lay beside it ready for instant use if hot water should be needed in the night. Dicky had not seen the lamp in action many times and never had he had the privilege of lighting it. It seemed an unparalleled opportunity.