Joe and Roger had quite fallen in love with Garry Knapp and talked a good deal about him. But their talk was innocent enough and was not aimed at her. They had not discovered—as they had regarding Jennie Hapgood and Ned—that their big sister was in the toils of this strange new disease that seemed to have smitten the young folk at The Cedars.
On this very day that Tavia had elected to go to town and Nat had driven her in the cutter, Dorothy put on her wraps for a tramp through the snow. As she started toward the back road she saw Joe and Roger coming away from the kitchen door, having been whisked out by the cook.
“Take it all and go and don’t youse boys be botherin’ me again to-day—and everything behind because of the wash,” cried Mary, as the boys departed.
“What have you been bothering Mary for?” asked Dorothy, hailing her brothers.
“Suet,” said Joe.
“Oh, do come on, Sister,” cried the eager Roger. “We’re going to feed ’em.”
“Feed what?” asked Dorothy.
“The bluejays and the clapes and the snow buntings,” Roger declared.
“With suet?”
“That’s for the jays,” explained Joe. “We’ve got plenty of cracked corn and oats for the little birds. You see, we tie the chunks of suet up in the trees—and you ought to see the bluejays come after it!”