legs out in front and landed it with a _flump_! on the floor five feet
ahead of his initial stand-point.

"Hurray!" cried Jane, shrilly. "What other girls do you know who've got a
brother like this?" She snatched up a brass-edged ruler that had lain
alongside the paper-cutter. Mrs. Rhodes started back; Alice's husband,
who had come in to lead the homeward march to Riverside Park, paused
astonished on the threshold.

"On guard!" echoed Jane in turn. With a _flump!_ of her own she threw
herself into an imitation of the angular crouch that her brother had
assumed. "Go it!" she called, and began to hack at the paper-cutter with
her ruler.

Save for the clash of weapons there was a complete silence. Suddenly
Truesdale reversed his position. Jane did the same, bringing a sudden and
unaccustomed weight upon her other foot. Her knee cracked loudly.
Everybody heard it. Rosy snickered.

Jane crossed the room and sat down in a shady corner. In that ten seconds
she felt ten years older.

"Where's pa?" she asked her mother in a sour tone, after Alice and her
aunt had left the house. "I do hope"--crossly--"that the next time you
let any of those wretched old women take anything away you'll have them
pay for it in advance."

"I guess your father isn't bothering much about a bedstead and a few old
chairs," retorted her mother. "If you want to know what he's thinking
about, it's that Belden again."