voice. "At the same time, it was a very silly performance."

"It was," nodded the doctor, who turned to the girls to add:

"My dears, as you succeeded this time in making me your very reluctant
accomplice, I am in no position to say very much to you. But
I trust you all realize the situation and its outcome, and that
you will never allow yourselves to be made ridiculous again in
any such way."

"I don't believe we shall," Laura replied. "We felt ashamed of
ourselves afterwards, but we were silly enough to feel because
we had pledged ourselves to forage for fruit and vegetables that
the joke must be carried out."

"Tom Reade," snapped Susie Sharp, "you are just bursting with
laughter that you can hardly hold back."

"Not I!" Tom denied promptly. "I am congratulating myself that
we boys had sense enough not to take seriously your claim that
you had been robbing anyone's garden. As it happened, you did
that very thing, but you didn't know it, and you didn't mean to."

There was an embarrassed silence. Then Dick proposed:

"Let's have a good-natured laugh all around and forget the whole
thing."

That relieved the awkwardness of the situation. After that a
watermelon was cut and brought to the tables.