In an amazingly short time and while Jasper and Joy were still laughing at Ted’s joke, Sallie and Margie, fully dressed, dashed from the door, seized some hoes, and rushed for their brothers.
“Some cure for aches, what?” grinned the younger boy, as he dodged a blow. “I think I’ll call myself Dr. Porter and advertise.”
The girls, however, were bent on vengeance, and chased their brothers until their mother called:
“If you girls feel strong enough to run, you can help me shake out these blankets.”
“We are farmers, not housemaids, Mrs. Porter,” returned Margie, without abandoning the pursuit.
“But breakfast is getting cold and my ‘flap-jacks’ will be spoiled,” interposed Joy.
At the words Phil stopped running. “I’ll give you each two whacks at me, if you’ll let me eat,” he announced.
“So’ll I,” agreed his brother.
“Um, if Joy’s flap-jacks are so good you are willing to be beaten, I think I’ll eat them myself,” decided Margie. “We’ll punish you by allowing you only one apiece. Come on, Sallie and Momsy. Joy, you sit down. I’ll serve the flap-jacks.”
Not until Ted had told his sisters that he and Phil had been subjected to the same “cure” were the girls appeased, but Joy was compelled to fry more flap-jacks, so ravenously did the Easterners eat them.