It was a fine speech, but after she heard herself say it, Mrs. Budlong
had a sinking feeling that if she herself had never called on anybody
she had not criticized she would have stayed at home all her life. But
Johnetta Ackerley took another line. She threw herself on Mrs.
Budlong's mercy, and if Mrs. Budlong boasted of anything more than
another it was her mercy.

"I have just been at the church," said Johnetta, "helping to decorate
it for Christmas week, and I was hanging up a big motto 'Peace on
Earth, Good Will to Men' and I think it ought to apply to women, too.
I grovel in apology and I pray you to forgive me. You can't refuse
your forgiveness when I implore it, can you?"

Mrs. Budlong wanted to but could not and the two women fell about each
other's throats and exchanged moan for moan. As they were comfortably
dabbing each other's tears from their cheeks and sniffing their own and
laughing cosily after the rain, Johnetta giggled and sobbed at once:

"The idea of your thinking I didn't just love you--and me working my
fingers to the bone making a Christmas present for you!"




X

A WELL-LAID PLAN

In the Civil War there were over two thousand battles and the details
could not be reported in a lifetime. But their result can be stated in