the boys in and have some fun."

"O!" exclaimed his cousin, with round eyes of disapproval.

"Why shouldn't I?" asked Louis, sharply. "I guess I have a right to do
as I choose when there's nobody here to tell me I sha'n't."

Edna could not always answer Louis' arguments, but she knew it would
be against the wishes of her aunt and uncle. "I wouldn't do it," she
said.

"O, no, _you_ wouldn't, good little baby girl; you're too much of a
saint. I suppose you'll tattle, too."

The tears came into Edna's eyes. "Now, Louis, you know I never tell on
you."

"Well, no, you don't; but if you're so down on a fellow's having any
fun, what's he to expect?"

"I'm not down on your having fun, but I think we ought to do just as
well as we can while uncle and aunt are away; better even, for it
seems sort of--sort of dishonest to do things behind people's backs
that you wouldn't do before their faces."

"Do you mean to say I am dishonest?" began Louis, blustering.

"O, no," cried Edna; "but--but--"

"Humph! I don't believe you know what you do mean. Now, see here; my
father and mother ain't wicked people, are they?"

"Of course not."

"Well, then, if they let me have boys to come in and play with me at
home, why isn't it just as right here? Answer me that!"

Edna could not answer, so she got up and walked away, Louis calling
after her, "You needn't have anything to do with it, Miss Goody-goody.
I don't suppose the boys will insist upon your playing with them." And
a moment after Edna heard him go out of the house.

About a half hour later she heard him return, a troop of boys
following him. They clattered into the house and up into the
schoolroom. Ellen, hearing the noise, went up, but, as might have been
expected, the boys only jeered at her, and paid no attention to what
she said.

"Masther Louis must study his lessons," she told them.

"I don't have to," replied Louis. "I don't call that any school we had
to-day, and I'm not going to study the same lessons twice. You don't
know anything about it, Ellen. You just go along and tend to your
business. We're not going to do any harm." And Ellen, after standing
helplessly looking at them for a moment, went back to her work.

"Will she tell on you, Louis?" asked the boys.

"I don't care if she does," returned he. "If they make a fuss, I know
what I can do. I can run away."

"Good for you!" cried Phil Blaney. "Of course you can. You can go out
West. You can make your way to California, where your father and
mother are. You'll have a fine time, Lou, for you'll meet cowboys, and
maybe you'll have a whack at the Indians. That's what I'd like to do.
You're no baby, to be ordered around by a little girl and a servant."

"You bet I'm not," returned Louis, feeling very big. "They'd better
try bossing me. I'll let 'em know they can't do it."

The boys' play became more and more boisterous as time went on. The
schoolroom presented a fine field for sport, and Edna, in her room
above, trembled as now and then came a crash which made her jump.

"O, my!" she exclaimed; "I hope they won't go to Uncle Justus's
chemical closet. I'm so afraid they will!" And, indeed, the boys were
bent on investigating everything, with the intention of putting all in
order before they left.

But in the midst of the din came a sudden quiet. Edna could stand it
no longer, and she ran down stairs and peeped in the room. In flinging
a book across the room one of the boys had upset a bottle of ink, the
contents of which spattered floor and wall. The boys were busy mopping
it up.

"You can say the cat got up here and did it," Phil Blaney was saying.

"No, he sha'n't," cried Edna, from the door, ready to defend Moggins.

The boys all stopped and looked fearfully around.

"O, it's only Louis' cousin! She won't tell; will you, Edna?"

"I sha'n't let Moggins be blamed when he can't speak for himself," she
replied, firmly, although she was scared.

"If