Twaddles backed out of the pantry, into Norah who had come downstairs,
freshly gowned, to start her supper.

"Glory be!" she ejaculated. "Twaddles, what have you been up to now?
If you've been messing in my pantry, I'll tell your mother. What's
that all over your hands?"

"Jam," said Twaddles meekly.

Norah eyed him with suspicion.

"There's no jam there," she said. "Come over here to the light where I
can see ye."

Norah took Twaddles' wrists in her hands gingerly, for he was a very
sticky child, and turned his hands over to examine them.

"Jam, is it!" she snorted indignantly. "You just go and show yourself
to your mother. See what she says about the jam. I declare, you can't
keep a thing from the young ones in this house!"

Twaddles was glad to escape from the kitchen before Norah should
discover the many things out of place in her pantry, and he went into
the living-room, carefully holding out his gummy hands before him, to
find his mother.

"Now, Mother," he began hesitatingly, "I was real hungry, so I thought
I'd eat a little piece of cake. I knew you wouldn't mind."

"I didn't know we had any cake in the house," said Mother Blossom, in