“It’s too bad to take those things off of Eliza,” said Dolly, “she looks so pretty in ’em. Let’s take her, wheelbarrow and all, to show to the aunties.”

“I’m ’fraid Aunt Nine will faint again,” objected Dick.

“Oh, no, she won’t; it was the carving knife that scared her.”

So the twins trundled the white-draped wheelbarrow, and its white-garbed occupant straight up to the front door of the house.

“Come out, aunties!” they called. “The queen wants you to salute her majesty!”

Hearing the commotion, the three ladies came out on the veranda, and this time Aunt Penninah did not faint, but seemed greatly interested in the majestic Eliza.

“What have you put on her?” the old lady cried. “Why, they’re clothes, – rough-dry! Did you take them from the clotheslines? Rachel, do you allow these children to act up like that? I am ashamed of them, and you, too!”

Just then Delia came out to the veranda with a clothes-basketful of the garments the children had played with. Good-natured Delia rarely minded the twins’ mischief, but it had been a specially hard day, and the extra work and company had tired her out completely. Also, it was annoying to find her carefully washed clothes all muddied and grass-stained!

“Will ye look at this, Miss Rachel!” she exclaimed, her face red and angry. “It’s too much to ask of a gur-rl to hurry up her wash an’ cook for comp’ny on a Monday, an’ thin to go fer her clothes, an’ find ’em like this!”

Aunt Rachel and Aunt Abbie looked at the twins. So did Aunt Penninah. Dick and Dolly looked at the clothes in Delia’s basket. They were a sorry sight, but the twins seemed surprised rather than ashamed.

“Why, Delia Maloney!” cried Dick. “Are you sure we spoiled those clothes like that! Why, we just wore them to the coronation. I didn’t ’spect it would hurt ’em a bit!”

“Neither did I!” cried Dolly. “I’m awful sorry, Delia. I s’pose we ought not to have taken ’em; but truly, I never thought about their getting dirty. Will you have to wash ’em all over again?”

“Will I!” said Delia, grimly; “that I will, Miss Dolly; an’ a foine time I’ll have gettin’ the green stains out, for-bye the mud; an’ to say nothin’ of their being torn to bits!”

She held up a sheet and a tablecloth, each of which showed a jagged tear.

“I’ll mend those,” said Dolly, cheerfully, “they’ll be good practice, for Aunt Rachel is just teaching me darning in my sewing lessons.”

Soft-hearted Delia couldn’t help smiling at the earnest little face; Aunt Rachel and Aunt Abbie looked perplexed; but Aunt Penninah was unable to restrain expression of her feelings.

“You’re the worst children I ever saw!” she exclaimed; “the very worst! At nine years old you should know better than to cut up such naughty, wicked tricks! You must be severely punished. Rachel, if you don’t punish them, I shall do so myself!”

Now Dick and Dolly were quite unaccustomed to this sort of scolding. Aunt Rachel, though severe in principle, was very lenient in practice, and Aunt Abbie was gentleness itself. So it was with real curiosity that the twins drew nearer, to look at the reddening face and flashing black eyes of their great-aunt, and Dick said, very seriously:

“We were naughty, Aunt Nine; and if you punish us, how are you going to do it?”

The question was not at all impertinent, Dick’s round little face showed only a justifiable interest, and Aunt Penninah looked a little baffled, as both twins waited eagerly for her answer.

“Do just what you please in the matter, Aunt Nine,” said Miss Rachel, who had never quite outlived her youthful awe of the stern old lady. Miss Abbie clasped her hands in alarm, as if fearing the twins would be subjected to torture, and they all awaited Miss Penninah’s dictum.

“I think,” said the old lady, slowly, – and then she paused, a little disconcerted at the earnest gaze of the four brown eyes, that were so like those of the children’s father, her favourite nephew.

“I think,” she went on, more gently, “that I shall forbid you to go outside the house all day to-morrow.”

She didn’t say that she had had a far more severe punishment in mind, but had been deterred from inflicting it by those appealing eyes.

“Whew!” cried Dick, “stay in the house a whole day!”

“Yes,” said Aunt Nine, her ire returning as she noted the other aunts’ sorrowful looks, and Delia’s woe-begone face. “You children need discipline. It’s terrible the way you’re let to run wild! Rachel, you’ve no idea of training children properly, and as for you, Abbie, you’re simply a tool in their hands!”

Dolly took a step nearer to the old lady.

“Aunt Nine!” she cried, with flashing eyes, “don’t you talk like that about my Aunt Abbie, or my Aunt Rachel, either! They know how to bring up children just splendid! And they’re doing the best they can with me and Dick, but, as you know yourself, we’re the worst children ever, – so what can you ’spect?”

“Yes,” said Dick, taking his sister’s part, as usual. “We’ll do your old punishment, and we’re sorry we were naughty; – but you can’t jump on our aunties like that!”

The youngest inheritors of the celebrated Dana “spunk,” faced bravely the oldest member of the proud old family, and she realised the justice of their reproof.

“The children are partly right,” she said, turning to her older nieces with a short, sharp laugh; “and the matter must not be discussed further in their presence. Dick and Dolly, you will obey my orders about to-morrow, and now come and kiss me, and we will drop the subject.”

Dick stared at his aunt and hesitated, but quicker-witted Dolly appreciated that, in Aunt Penninah’s mind, the coming punishment wiped out even remembrance of the fault, and she willingly kissed her. Not the spontaneous, loving sort of embraces they gave the other aunties, but a whole-hearted, honest kiss of truce.

Dick followed her example, and then the twins were excused, and they raced out in the kitchen after Delia.

“The intherferin’ ould lady!” cried Delia, as she snatched the children in her arms. “Sorra the day I iver wint to Miss Rachel wid thim clo’es; but I was that put about, Miss Dolly, dear.”

“Oh, pooh, Delia,” cried Dick; “you were all right, and we’ve come to ’pollergize for spoilin’ your wash all up. We’re awful sorry.”

“Yes,” chimed in Dolly, as Delia embraced them both; “we’ll never do it again; but, truly, Delia, we didn’t think!”

“Av coorse ye didn’t, ye blissid babies! Shure ye niver think! An’ what’s a wash, more or less? I wish ould Miss Penninah had to do it hersilf fur teasin’ ye.”

“Now, Delia,” said Dick, “you mustn’t talk that way. Aunt Nine is our aunt, and we must love and respect her just as we do the other aunties.”

“It’s a thrue Dana ye are, Masther Dick; both of yez. An’ ye’re right, too. Miss Penninah is the grand old lady, and the rale head of the fambly. So do yez take yer punishment like the shwate childher ye be.”

And having duly made good their reputation as “true Danas” Dick and Dolly trotted off to bed.

The next day proved to be the very loveliest day of the whole Spring.

The sun incessantly winked an invitation for the twins to come out and play. The blue sky smiled the same plea, and the soft breeze whispered it again and again.

The flowers nodded at them as they looked out of the windows, and the trees spread their branches, as in a welcoming embrace.

The birds twittered, “Come, come!” and, though too far away to be heard, Dolly knew, her pet chicken was peeping the same words.

But worst of all was to see Pat watering their own flower-beds, – their pansies and daffodils that had never drank from any hands save the twins’ own!

This sight nearly made the tears come, but Dick said bravely:

“We must make the best of it, Dollums. There’s no use of getting all weepy-waily when it won’t do any good.”

“No, but Dick, don’t you s’pose she’d just let us go and water our plants, – if we came right back?”

“Sha’n’t ask her; and don’t you ask that, either. Now we’ll both do our practising, – I guess I’ll practise another hour while you’re doing your old sewing, – and then let’s go up in the attic to play.”

Dolly brightened a little. “All right; we’ve always been going to fish around up there, and we never had a good chance before.”

So Dolly went to one piano, and Dick to the other, and they practised so diligently and painstakingly, that Aunt Penninah, who listened at the doors, was greatly pleased with their thorough work.

“There’s good stuff in those children, Rachel,” she said; “if you don’t spoil them by your foolish leniency and over-indulgence.”

“I don’t mean to, Aunt Nine,” said Miss Rachel, a little meekly, “but you know they’re never purposely mischievous. The Danas are all impulsive and thoughtless, and Dick is exactly like his father was at his age.”

“Yes, I know all that; but they need a strong hand to rule them, and though you and Abbie are firm enough in some ways, you give right in to those twins. Now, I don’t!”

“No,” said Miss Rachel, grimly, “you don’t. How long are you going to stay this time, Aunt Nine?”

“I planned to stay only a day or two; but as I’ve become interested in John’s children, I shall remain a week at least. I want to learn their natures, and, incidentally, I can help you with my judgment and advice.”

Miss Rachel groaned in spirit, but made no audible objection to her aunt’s decree.

Dolly’s sewing hour that day was devoted to mending the clothes she and her little friends had torn, and by dint of much instruction from the three aunts, and honest industry on her own part, she achieved some very creditable darns and patches.

During the sewing hour, Aunt Penninah sought out Dick, and had a talk with him. She was rather severe, but the clan feeling was strong in both, and after their conversation Dick felt a loyalty and respect toward the old lady, if not a deep affection.

Then, Dolly’s sewing hour being over, the twins scampered for the attic.

“It’s horrid,” said Dick, “to be shut up in this stuffy old place on a day like this; but let’s get all the fun we can out of it.”

“Let’s,” agreed Dolly, and as a starter they rambled through the old, unused rooms, and looked at the old pictures and discarded furniture stored there.

“Awful poky!” said Dick as they sat down on a haircloth sofa, and stared at each other.

“Yes,” said Dolly, with a scowl. “I think Aunt Nine is a horrid – ”

“Don’t talk that way, Doll,” said Dick, remembering his conversation with the old lady; “just forget it, – forget outdoors and flowers and everything, – and let’s play something nice.”

“What can we play?” asked Dolly, disconsolately.

“I dunno; but isn’t it funny why we can’t think of something? If it was a rainy day and we couldn’t go outdoors, we’d have lots of fun in the house.”

“Well, let’s play it’s raining then.”

This was a distinct suggestion, and Dick caught it at once.

“Wow!” he cried, looking out of the window; “what a storm! It’s just pouring!”

“So it is!” said Dolly, gleefully; “we couldn’t go out to-day even with umbrellas! Do you s’pose it’ll clear by to-morrow?”

“Yes, I guess so. But it won’t stop all day to-day.”

“No, I don’t believe it will. So we’ll play up here to-day.”

Then the twins went into the big lumber room, where all sorts of old things were stored away.

“What’s that big boxy thing, face to the wall?” asked Dolly, looking at a plain black walnut affair, about as high as herself.

“Dunno; let’s turn it around.”

Dick pulled the thing out from the wall, which was quite easy, as it rolled on casters, and it proved to be entirely open on the other side.

It was about four feet high, and about three feet wide, and though something like a small wardrobe, it was divided into six equal compartments, each of which was lined with wallpaper.

“Why, Dick!” cried Dolly, “it’s a playhouse! A doll’s house, you know. I believe it was Aunt Abbie’s when she was a little girl. Do you s’pose there’s any furniture for it?”

“Must be; somewheres. Isn’t it gay? See the windows, they have real glass in ’em. This must be the kitchen with oilcloth on the floor.”

“Yes; and the other floors are all bare. I s’pose the carpets are put away somewhere, with the furniture. Let’s hunt them.”

The twins were not long in discovering three or four good-sized boxes tied together, which proved to contain the furniture of the doll’s house.

“Oh, what fun!” cried Dolly, as they took out little beds and tables and chairs. “But we can’t put these in place till we find the carpets. Oh, here comes Aunt Rachel. Auntie, was this your babyhouse when you were a little girl?”

“Yes,” said Aunt Rachel, coming toward the twins. “I meant to fix it up for you some day, Dolly, but perhaps you’ll like to fix it yourselves just as well.”

“Yes, we will, Auntie!” cried Dolly, tumbling into her aunt’s arms for a few caresses before they looked for the carpets.

“Who made the house, Auntie?” said Dick, snuggling into her other arm, and patting her cheek.

“Why, a carpenter, I suppose. Father had it made for me when I was ten years old, and your father was a toddling baby. He used to creep up to it, and pull out the things that he could reach.”

“Did he look like us?” asked Dolly.

“He looked like Dick. You both have eyes like his, but his hair was in dark ringlets all over his head, like Dick’s is. Now, let’s find the carpets, and fix up the house. Wouldn’t you rather have it down in the playroom?”

“Oh, yes,” said Dick. “It’s pretty hot and dry up here. The playroom is lovely and airy, ’most like outdoors.” He gave a little sigh, and Aunt Rachel remembered that the children were undergoing punishment.

Her eyes twinkled a little, as she said:

“Aunt Nine didn’t make any other stipulation, except that you were to stay in the house all day, did she?”

“No’m,” said Dick. “And, Auntie Rachel, we’re awful sorry we spoiled the clean clothes.”

“Yes, terrible sorry,” added Dolly, while they both fondled their aunt half-unconsciously.

“You can be the sorriest pair of twins I ever saw, after your mischief is accomplished,” said Miss Rachel. “Why doesn’t your sorriness begin beforehand, I’d like to know?”

“Well, you see,” said Dolly, “we don’t think – ”

“That’s just it, you never ‘think.’ Now, I’m going to teach you to think, – somehow; I don’t know how yet, but we’ll manage to make you thinkers somehow.”

“After Aunt Nine goes away,” suggested Dick.

“Yes,” agreed Aunt Rachel, “after Aunt Nine goes away.”

CHAPTER XVI
THE PLAYHOUSE

Then they all went down to dinner, the twins holding hands with each other, round Aunt Rachel’s ample waist. As she had an arm round each of their necks, locomotion down the stairways was difficult, but they all accomplished it somehow, and made a triumphal entry at the dining-room door.

Aunt Penninah was already in her chair, and looked up sharply, as if expecting to see a doleful pair of twins.

But the laughing faces proved that, if not enjoying their punishment, the children were, at least, making the best of it, and Aunt Nine sniffed a little, as she asked:

“What have you been doing all morning?”

“Oh, having the beautifullest time!” exclaimed Dolly. “We found an old doll’s house, that used to be Auntie Rachel’s when she was a little girl.”

“And my father played with it, too,” said Dick, proudly.

“Oh, Rachel,” said Miss Abbie, with a disappointed look, “we meant to keep that for their Christmas!”

“It doesn’t matter,” said her sister, serenely; “they may as well have it now. Hannah, tell Michael to bring it down to the playroom while we’re at dinner.”

Hannah obeyed, and the twins could scarcely eat their dinner for anticipation of the fun to come.

“Your punishment doesn’t seem very hard to bear,” said Aunt Nine, looking quizzically at the children.

“Oh, yes it is, Auntie,” said Dick. “We’d ever so much rather run out of doors in this sunshiny day, and save the playhouse for a rainy day. Truly, we feel the punishment very much.”

It somehow seemed to Dick’s queer little brain that it was rude to defraud Aunt Penninah of her rights. She had evidently expected them to repine at being kept indoors, and though they hadn’t exactly done that, she was entitled to know that they really were feeling the punishment. And it was quite true. Both he and Dolly would have gladly postponed the playhouse fun, to scamper out for a run in the garden. Aunt Nine nodded a sort of approval.

“You’re an honest little chap, Dick,” she said; “I’m beginning to like you.”

“Don’t you like Dolly, too?” asked Dick, with the air of one merely seeking information.

“Yes, I like you both. If you’d be a little more thoughtful, and – ”

“Oh, we’re going to learn to think,” said Dolly. “Auntie Rachel is going to teach us.”

“I wish her joy of her task,” said Aunt Penninah, but her eyes twinkled just a little mite, and the twins began to think she was really not such an ogress as she had seemed at first.

After dinner they all went up to the playroom, and found the playhouse well placed, in a corner between two windows.

“Oh,” cried Dolly in rapture, as she saw the boxes full of furniture, and the bundles of carpet.

The carpets smelled of camphor as Aunt Rachel unrolled them, for they had been carefully put away from the moths, and proved to be in perfect condition.

The aunties all looked a bit sober, as the small squares were unfolded, for their thoughts flew back nearly forty years, when Rachel and Abbie had been little girls, and Penninah Dana had been a beautiful young woman.

But no such memories saddened the twins’ hearts, and they capered about in glee, shaking out the carpets, and holding them up for inspection.

“This is the parlour one!” cried Dolly, as a light velvety square appeared.

She tucked it into place, and it exactly fitted the parlour floor.

Two bedroom carpets were there; a library and a dining-room, – and the kitchen already had oilcloth on it.

Then came the furniture, and both twins fairly squealed with delight over the funny little things, as they took them from the boxes and put them in place in the rooms of the playhouse.

The dining-room furniture was all of iron.

“That stove,” said Miss Rachel, holding a black iron stove of the shape known as “cylinder,” “father brought me when I was getting well after the measles. ‘You can build a real fire in it,’ he said, ‘it’s a real little stove.’”

“And did you?” asked Dick.

“Yes; several times. There’s a tiny tin pipe that goes out through this hole in the wall of the house. See?”

The twins saw, but there was so much to see, little time could be spent on any one thing. The parlour furniture was of satin brocade, of deep red colour, which was unfaded, and quite as good as new.

“I helped make those chairs,” said Aunt Nine. “I cut and basted, while your mother sewed them, Rachel.”

“They’re beautifully made,” said Miss Rachel. “Dolly, if you want some more, you can make them in your sewing-hour.”

“I’ll make you some,” said Aunt Penninah. “If you can find some pretty bits of stuff, Abbie, I’ll make a few to-day.”

“Oh, do, Aunt Nine,” cried Dolly. “These chairs are all right, but it would be so lovely to have some new ones of our very own!”

“I’m going to make some little wooden chairs and tables,” said Dick. “I can cut them out with my jigsaw, and glue them together.”

“Do,” said Aunt Abbie, “and we’ll make satin cushions for them, and tie them on with little ribbons.”

The furnishing of the house went on, and it would be hard to say which were more interested, the twins or the older people.

When they came up to the bedrooms, they found the tiny sheets and pillowcases yellow with age.

“Will you make us some new ones, Aunt Rachel?” asked Dolly.

“Yes; or Delia can bleach these for you. They’re as good as ever, except their colour.”

Then the aunties discovered that the portières for the parlour were faded, and the lace curtains had turned irretrievably brown, so off went Aunt Abbie to get some bits of stuff at once, to make new ones.

And very soon the three aunties were busily engaged in cutting and sewing all sorts of pretty things for the house.

The best bedstead was of the sort that requires dimity curtains and valance to make it complete.

Aunt Penninah offered to fit this bed out entirely, and her deft needle flew in and out of the muslins Aunt Abbie brought, until she had made the little bed the most charming affair imaginable.

In addition to the curtains, she hemmed tiny sheets; she made a dear blanket, of a morsel of white flannel bound with ribbon; and lovely pillowcases, with hemstitched ends.

Then, to Dolly’s breathless delight, she made a little silk comfortable, with a layer of cotton-wool in it, and tacked at intervals with microscopic bows of blue ribbon.

Of course this work of the aunties took all the afternoon, and indeed, it wasn’t finished that day.

But the interest in the house grew more and more absorbing as the days went by, and though the children loved out of doors best, they often devoted a few hours of the pleasantest days to “Dana Cottage,” as they called it. When it was nearly finished, as to furnishing, they began to prepare a family of dolls to occupy it. Aunt Nine offered to present the entire family, and afterward assist in making their clothing.

So one fine afternoon Miss Penninah and the twins drove to town to select the dolls. It was great fun, and yet it was a responsibility, too. Dick was quite as much interested as Dolly, for somehow, the house offered so much boyish work, and play, that it didn’t seem like “playing with dolls.”

Besides the twins always did the same things, and Dolly would have lost her own interest in the playhouse if Dick hadn’t shared it.

So, after much consultation, they chose a father and a mother doll, an aunt doll, two small children dolls, and a baby doll. A nurse and two other servants were added, and then they declared they had enough.

“Enough? I should think so!” said Aunt Nine, who began to see endless doll-dressing ahead of her. But her eyes twinkled; and then she let the twins select from the shop several bits of dolls’ furniture that were not in vogue when the playhouse was originally furnished.

Laden with their treasures they all went home, and that very evening the aunties began on the dolls’ wardrobes.

“Is this your idea of disciplining the children, Aunt Nine?” said Miss Rachel, as they sewed, after Dick and Dolly had gone to bed.

Miss Penninah Dana looked a little confused, but she answered straightforwardly:

“I think you were nearer right than I, Rachel. The twins are not what we used to call ‘good children.’ I mean the meek, mild, priggish little persons that children were taught to be when I was young. Dick and Dolly are so full of life and spirits that they do wrong things from sheer thoughtlessness and gaiety of heart. But they are never wilfully mischievous, and never deceitful about it afterward. They do need firm guidance, but they do not need to be taught the difference between right and wrong, for they already know it. They are true Danas.”

When Miss Penninah announced that last fact, she felt that she had given the last word of praise to the twins, and indeed, the other two aunts thought so too.

So clannish were they, and so proud of their fine old family, that they greatly preferred Dick and Dolly to be “true Danas” than to possess many other admirable traits. And so, the three stitched away, quite agreed, at last, on the management of the children, and hoping they would grow up to manhood and womanhood, with the inherited traits of dignity, honour, and refinement that characterised their family.

Meanwhile the “true Danas” upstairs were sleeping soundly, and only awoke when the sun peeped in at their windows and winked and blinked right into their eyes.

And when, later, they danced down to breakfast, there in a row on the sofa sat a smiling and well-dressed family, all ready to take up their abode in “Dana Cottage.”

Dolly went into ecstasies over the mother doll, who wore a trailing house dress of light blue satin trimmed with lace. The aunt, too, was resplendent in crimson velvet, and the children were in the daintiest of white or light frocks.

The father-doll had been difficult to dress, but though a professional tailor might have taken exception to the cut, the aunties had made his neat suit fit him very well indeed.

Dick was interested in the new family, and admired them duly, but he was already thinking of how he could build a yard around the house itself, and he confided his plans to Dolly.

“We’ll fence off a space all round the house,” he said. “I’ll make a little picket fence with splints. It’s just as e-easy! Then we’ll get green velvet carpet for the grass.”

“Oh, carpet isn’t a bit like grass,” objected Dolly. “It’s so thick and dusty. Let’s have real dirt, – or sand.”

“I think sand is messy.”

“Yes, so do I. Oh, I tell you what, Dick! Let’s cut green tissue paper into fine fringe, and put it round where we want grass, – paste it to something, you know, – like we made fairies’ wings, – only green.”

“Yes, that’s the ticket!” exclaimed Dick. “Then we’ll make little paths of, – of brown paper, I guess, – pasted down.”

“Yes; take a big sheet of pasteboard first, and then stick everything on it.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean. Then bits of evergreen for trees, and perhaps real flowers, growing in little bits of pots.”

“Oh, it will be lovely! Dick, you’re splendid to think of it all!”

The twins joined hands and jumped up and down, as was their custom when greatly pleased with each other. Then the aunties came in, and they all went to breakfast.

The children told their plan for the yard around the house, and the ladies agreed that it would be lovely.

“I’ll help you to make a pond, Dickie,” said Aunt Penninah, “like one I had when I was a little girl. That dates farther back than Aunt Rachel’s childhood.”

“How do you make a pond?” asked Dick, not much interested in comparative dates of past Danas.

“We must get a piece of mirror, – without a frame, you know, – and put it in the middle of your grass plot, and then put pretty stones or shells round the edge of the mirror, and it looks just like water.”

“And little tin ducks on it,” shouted Dick, “like a real pond! Oh, Auntie, that will be tip-top!”

“And I’ll make you a pond on the other side of your house,” put in Aunt Abbie, “of real water. In a big flat pan, you know; and little sprigs of fern all round the edge.”

“All right; we’ll have both,” declared Dick. “I don’t know which’ll be nicest, they’re both so splendid. And I’ll make a little boat to sail on the water. I can whittle it out of a stick.”

“And I’ll make a sail for it.” said Aunt Abbie, “and we’ll rig up a sail-boat.”

Such interest did the aunts take in the cottage yard, it was almost as if they were children too, and Dick and Dolly became more and more enraptured with the wonderful things they made.

Aunt Abbie fashioned a little hammock with her crochet needle and some green and white cord. When she put fringe along its edges, and suspended it from two evergreen trees in the “yard,” Dolly thought she had never seen anything so cunning. Two little dolls were put into it, and the nurse doll was set to swing them until they fell asleep. Michael, who was greatly pleased with the whole affair, fashioned a tiny arbour just like their own in their playground outside. It was made of tiny twigs, and when the gardener brought it in, as his offering to the general gaiety, it was accepted with hilarious thanks. Very small green vines were twisted about it, and tiny blossoms of forget-me-not or lilies-of-the-valley were entwined. But the little flowerets faded so soon that Aunt Abbie made some diminutive roses of pink tissue paper, which would stay fresh all summer.

Many plans were made for future additional beauties, and the little estate grew rapidly to an elaborate country place, when Michael declared that he should build a barn for it. This announcement was heralded with delight, and for many days, Michael spent all his spare time in the tool-house, Dick and Dolly bobbing about him, and helping or hindering as best they could.

The barn, when done, was a grand affair indeed. Not of very elaborate architecture, but provided with stables, carriage house, feed bins, and even a chicken coop.

Again Aunt Nine took the twins to town on a shopping expedition, and this time they returned with all the four-legged and two-legged toys necessary to complete the barn’s use and beauty. Also there were carriages for the dolls to drive in, and sleighs, too, for in doll land the lack of snow makes no difference in the sleighing season.

Aunt Penninah’s visit of a week lengthened out to a fortnight, but not until the last tiny carriage robe was finished, and the last hat and cape made for the smallest doll, did Aunt Nine make her farewells to Dana Dene.

And, then, she went away, promising to return for another visit as soon as possible, and insisting on a promise that the twins should some day visit her in her own home.