"Call me?" he inquired with the air of cheerful readiness to
proceed upon any errand, no matter how difficult.

Mr. Madison countered diplomacy with gloom.

"I don't know what to do with you. Why can't you let your sister
alone?"

"Has Laura been complaining of me?"

"Oh, Hedrick!" said Mrs. Madison.

Hedrick himself felt the justice of her reproof: his reference to
Laura was poor work, he knew. He hung his head and began to scrape
the carpet with the side of his shoe.

"Well, what'd Cora say I been doing to her?"

"You know perfectly well what you've been doing," said Mr. Madison
sharply.

"Nothing at all; just sitting on the steps. What'd she _say_?"

His father evidently considered it wiser not to repeat the text of
accusation. "You know what you did," he said heavily.

"Oho!" Hedrick's eyes became severe, and his sire's evasively
shifted from them.