"I'll mend it," he promised hastily. "Honestly, I never thought
about hurting the fence."

"I know you didn't," Mr. Carter said promptly. "Still, that really
doesn't alter the fact that you've damaged property that doesn't
belong to you. I think to help you remember another time, we'll
say you must mend the fence this morning and make up the time
after school. I'll take Palmer in and patch him up now. Meg, you
should be in your classroom."

"I want to help Bobby," asserted Meg firmly. "I'll stay after
school with him, too. It's just as much my fault--I knew he
shouldn't pull off pickets, only I never told him."

Mr. Carter looked at the little girl oddly.

"All right, only you'll have to make up the time with Miss Mason,"
he said. "I think Bobby is a lucky boy to have such a loyal little
sister."

Meg and Bobby managed to put the pickets back and Mr. Carter found
a piece of new wood with which to patch the old cross piece. They
learned that it is easier to destroy things than to mend them, and
after they had stayed till half past four that night and Mother
Blossom had heard the reason and forbidden them ever to take the
tin automobile to school again, both children decided that a game
with such a sorry ending wasn't worth planning.

The twins had spent the day grubbing in the garden. "Hunting
grasshoppers," Twaddles said, as Mother Blossom buttoned him into