'ave it. I dunno what more 'arm you mightn't be doing with it."

"We couldn't do more harm than you have done already," snapped Dan.
"You've nailed Aunt Pike fast to the house with it, and it will take
more than we can do to get her away again."

"What be saying of, sir?" asked Jabez, bewildered, and suddenly
realizing that their sombre faces and manner meant something more than
usual. "Mrs. Pike--"

"Father is going to send and ask Aunt Pike to live here, and it's your
fault," said Betty concisely. "It was your complaining about Dan that
did it."

Jabez gasped. He knew the lady well, and preserved a vivid recollection
of her former visit. "She hain't a-coming visiting here again, is she,
sur?" he groaned.

"Visiting! It's much worse than that, a thousand times worse. She is
coming here for good, to manage all of us--and you too!" they gasped.

Jabez dropped helpless on to an upturned bucket, the picture of hopeless
dejection. "There won't be no peace in life no more," he said, "and I
shan't be allowed to show my nose in the kitchen. I'd have had my old
'ead scat abroad every day of my life and never have told rather than
I'd have helped to do this. Was it really me telling on 'ee, sur, that
made the master settle it so?"

"Yes," nodded Dan, "that finished it."