May said, "Oh, dear, I can't hear myself speak. Edith, will you quiet
the blackbird?" And Aunty Edith called to George not to sing so loud,
and he said, "Yas, 'm, Miss Edith"; and the next minute it began louder
than ever.

Then Aunty Edith went downstairs to tell him to take his work farther
away from the house.

She hadn't been gone a minute till we heard her say, "Oh, good
gracious, what shall I do? Come here, George, and see if you can take it
off." George kept saying, "Yas, 'm, Miss Edith, yas, 'm"; and Aunty
Edith was being so very spluttery, that Aunty May and I leaned out the
window, and then we jerked our heads in and Aunty May said, "Don't you
dare laugh out loud, Billy."

Then we looked again, and jerked our heads inside the window every time
we felt the laugh coming on, which was pretty often, for you see George
had put the paint-can, a small one, right on the doorsill, and Aunty
Edith had put her foot in it, and it had caught.

There was Aunty Edith holding on to the grape-arbor while George pulled
at the can, and the paint flowing around pretty free. Well, George
couldn't pull it off, and finally he had to take a can-opener and cut
Aunty Edith's foot out, just as though she were salmon, or something.

When we got to that part, Aunty May and I forgot ourselves and laughed
out loud, and then Aunty Edith looked at us, and looked at her foot, and
at George's black face all daubed with green paint, and his clothes,
too, as he carefully cut her out, and she laughed, too. But it spoiled
her shoe, and it took several days to wear the green off George.