"Didn't you just say I'd 'better not say bet?'" demanded Russ. "Well,
then count 'em! 'Bet' out of 'better' is one, and 'bet' makes two----"

"I never said it the way you did," began Rose, quite put out, when
Laddie began to clamor:

"Tell me my riddle! You can't--none of you. 'What is it that's so easy
to catch but nobody runs after?'"

"I don't know, Laddie," said Rose.

"I give it up," said Russ.

"Do you all give it up?" cried Laddie, almost dancing in his glee.

"What is it?" asked Vi.

"Why, the thing that's so easy to catch but nobody runs after, is a
cold!" announced her twin very proudly.

"And I'm so-o cold," announced Mun Bun, hanging to Rose's skirt while
the older ones laughed with Laddie. "Don't Aunt Jo ever have it warm in
her house--like it is at home?"

"Of course she does, Mun Bun," said Rose, quickly hugging the little
fellow. "But poor William is sick and nobody knows how to tend to the
heating plant as well as he does. And so--Why, Russ, Mun Bun is cold!
His hands are like ice."