them each a thousand dollar mill bond."

"Well, I doubt seriously if they will live to use the bonds if some one
does not stop David from trying experiments with them," answered Phoebe
with a laugh. "After dinner last night he came in with two little
sleeping hammock machines which he insisted in putting up on the wall for
them. If the pulley catches you have to stand on a chair to extract them;
and if it slips, down they come. Milly was so grateful and let him play
with them for an hour; she's a sweet soul."

"Has he sent any more food?" asked Mrs. Matilda as they all laughed.

"Two more cases of a new kind he saw advertised in a magazine. Somebody
must tell him that--Milly is equal to the situation. Billy Bob _won't_;
and so the cases continue to arrive. The pantry is crowded with them and
they have sent a lot to the Day Nursery," and Phoebe slipped from the
window-seat down on to the rug at Caroline's feet in a perfect ecstasy
of mirth.

"But he is just the dearest boy, Phoebe," said Caroline Darrah as she
paused in her sewing to caress the sleek, black, braided head tipped back
against her knee. There was the shadow of reproach in her voice as she
smiled down into the gray eyes upturned to hers.

"Yes," answered Phoebe, instantly on the defensive, "he is just exactly
that, Caroline Darrah Brown--and he doesn't seem to be able to get over
it. I'm afraid it's chronic with him."

"He's young yet," Mrs. Buchanan remarked as she clipped a thread with her
bright scissors.