At the appearance of their be-hatted parents on Mother Mayberry's
front walk they all swooped over and stood in a circle around the
gate. A mother who has many calls in the life-complicated to take
her out of reach of the children is different from a mother who is
always in the house, kitchen, garden or at a convenient neighbor's,
and this weekly three-hour separation occasionally had disastrous
results.

"Have anything happened, 'Liza?" asked her mother, as she ran a
practised eye over her group and detected not a loose end. Eliza and
Bud had rolled over the wheelbarrow, led by the prancing team.

"No'm," answered Eliza, "everybody's been good and the Deacon have
told us three Bible tales, and my side have beat Henny's five
catches and one loose. But Henny played his'n good," she added, with
a worthy victor's generosity to the fallen foe.

"Here's a whole bucket of cakes Cindy and Miss Elinory made in case
we found a good passel of children when the meeting was over," said
Mother Mayberry as she tendered the crisp reward of merit to Bud
Pike, who stood nearest her.

"Thank you, ma'am," answered Bud, mindful of his manners. "Say,
'Liza, let's all go down and set on the pump and eat 'em, and we can
drink water, too, so they will last longer."

"All right," answered Eliza, and she set about unharnessing the
young team, who immediately scampered after the rest. She handed
little Hoover to Mrs. Pratt and was preparing to set off with
Teether in the wake of the cake bucket, when the widow called to