making the room ready for Amanda. "Now, dear," she said to Mary Jane when
everything was finished, "Amanda is coming in here to sweep, why don't you
go out and play a while with Junior? See? He's out in the yard. If you play
nicely, you won't hurt your finger, I'm sure."

Mary Jane didn't care much about playing with Junior just then; she would
far rather have stayed and help Amanda sweep. So she walked very slowly
down the stairs and out of doors and was none too cordial in her greeting
to Junior. But he didn't seem to mind and as it's very hard to keep on
snubbing a person who doesn't notice he is being snubbed, Mary Jane soon
gave it up and they began making mud pies. Nice goo-y mud pies out of the
black mud in the to-be-geranium bed near the house.

But hardly had they finished their pies and arranged them on the edge of
the porch to bake, before Junior's mother called him to come home.

"She's always calling you home," protested Mary Jane, "but I 'pose you'll
have to go or you can't ever come over here again!"

"Yes," agreed Junior, "I'd better go home. But I'll come back again." And
he started to wipe his muddy hands on his trousers.

"Oh, don't, Junior!" cried Mary Jane. "You know what your mother'll say!
She don't like mud pies anyway. Come into the house and wash 'em before you
go."

The two children skipped into the house and upstairs to the bathroom where
Mary Jane filled the bowl with warm water--then she thought of something.

"Do you like to walk out of doors in the rain?" she asked craftily.