“They held a council, standing Before the river gate.
Short time was there, ye well may guess
For musing or debate.
Out spake the council roundly
‘The bridge must straight go down,
For since Janiculum is lost,
Naught else can save the town.’”
 T
HE sun had risen early to get a good start, and at nine o'clock was shining down with relentless fury on Cherry Street. Theodore was wont to declare that the rain was wetter and the dew damper and the sun hotter on this street than in any other portion of the inhabited globe; and it was certainly true that the rows of small houses, unprotected by trees or-87- awnings, did look unusually torrid in the broad glare of light.
 
In the Lee house the shutters were closed and the green shades drawn down, but the heat seemed to radiate from the painted door, on the south porch, where a small red-headed boy was trying to ring the door bell. It was a long reach for the little arms, and after raising himself so high upon his tiptoes that he nearly lost his balance, he gave up the attempt, and thumped lustily upon the panel. There was no response. He waited a moment, his small bare feet squirming about uneasily upon the hot floor, and then rapped a second time and a third. At the last knock another small red-roofed boy appeared over the top of the board fence that separated the Canary yard from the Lee home.
 
"Try it again," advised the owner of Red Head Number Two.
 
"I have tried it lots of agains."
 
"But ye ain't makin' no noise. Mis' Lee might be deef. Kick 'er a little."
 
-88-
 
"Ain't got no shoes on," protested the little messenger.
 
He had just raised his hand for a final rap when the door was opened, and Mrs. Lee appeared upon the threshold.
 
"Good-morning, Fridoline," she said pleasantly.
 
Fridoline delivered himself of his message speedily: "Ma's got an indisposhun and says please will you come over to wunst."
 
"What is the matter with your mother?" inquired Mrs. Lee, puzzled by the queer statement.
 
"She's got rigours," responded Red Head Number One.
 
"And her stummick's upset," added Red Head Number Two, across the fence.
 
Mrs. Lee was already untying her apron. "Tell her I'll be over there right away," she said, as she left the door to explain her absence to Beatrice.
 
Miss Billy, coming in from an errand some time afterward, stopped short at the sight of-89- Holly Belle, who, with tear-stained cheeks and red eyes, was emptying ashes into the street.
 
"Why what's the matter, Holly Belle?" she asked.
 
"Ma's sick," said Holly Belle, rubbing her sleeve across her eyes.
 
"Very sick?"
 
"I dunno. I guess she's pretty bad. She had highstericks this morning at dawn, but she wouldn't let me call your mother until she was sure by the smell of the coffee that you'd had your breakfast. I don't know what's the matter with her. I gave her all the kinds of medicine we had in the house, and there ain't none of 'em that seemed to do her a mite of good. Your ma's here now, and she seems to be a little better. But you know I heard the death tick in the wall, and I'm scaret to death." And the tears rose again.
 
"What's a death tick?" inquired Miss Billy, putting her arm reassuringly about the sorrowing little girl.
 
"It's a bug in the wall that always ticks-90- when people are goin' to—to die," sobbed Holly Belle.
 
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Miss Billy. "You don't believe that nonsense, do you? I can't think your mother is as sick as that, anyway. Is the doctor there?"
 
Holly Belle shook her head.
 
"Well then!" said Miss Billy triumphantly. "Mother would have had him there long ago if your mother was dangerously ill. She'll probably be all right in a day or two. Now cheer up, Holly Belle, and tell me what there is that I can do for you."
 
A loud shriek from the back of the house answered the question.
 
"It's the children," said Holly Belle. "They've been going on that way for an hour steady. I could make 'em behave, if it wasn't for Launkelot. But he's got up a new game, an' of course they're all bound to see it through."
 
"May I borrow them for a while?" asked Miss Billy.
 
-91-
 
Holly Belle gave a visible sigh of relief. "I sh'd say you can," she responded heartily.
 
There was no difficulty in finding the children, for a great hubbub in the back yard indicated that the small Canarys were having a decidedly hilarious and enlivening time during their mother's enforced retirement. Miss Billy went around the walk to the back of the Lee house, and surveyed her charges over the fence.
 
The back yard in the Canary premises had been partitioned off into little squares by means of a boot-heel which had grooved the hard dirt. In the first square sat Ginevra
 
"With raven ringlets unconfined,
And blowing madly in the wind."
Her face and arms and bare legs were adorned with fantastic designs in coloured chalk; and a frayed rope, attached by means of a safety-pin to the hem of her dress, gave unmistakable evidence of a tail. She was waving her arms violently, and giving vent to wild, unearthly-92- screams. Fridoline, in the next compartment, had wound his fat body with coils of rope, which he was painstakingly chewing. Tightly wedged into a dishpan in the third square, sat "Mixy" Murphy, in an airy costume of shirt and drawers; while Mike, the Baby, and the Other Baby were crawling about the ground in an abandonment of delight.
 
Miss Billy waited for a lull in the proceedings. When it came she made haste to ask:
 
"What in the world is all this?"
 
Launcelot, who was strutting through the enclosure, armed with a whip, took it upon himself to reply:
 
"We're havin' a street carnival," he explained. "Fridoline is playin' he's Bosco the Snake Eater, Jinny's Minnie the Wild Girl, an' Mixy is the High Diver. You have to pay five pins to see him dive from the fence to the tank. The Kids is camels, an' I'm boss o' the hull outfit. Frid, jest show Miss Billy how much rope you can swaller without gettin' black in the face."
 
-93-
 
Miss Billy hastened to prevent the heroic exhibition.
 
"Oh, no," she said, "you needn't mind, Friddie. I've got something else for you to do. Wouldn't you all like to come over and see me this morning?"
 
The Street Carnival Company gave vent to a wild yell of delight.
 
"Well, pick up your things first," cautioned Miss Billy, "and then come quietly so you won't disturb your mother. I'll be waiting for you."
 
"Picking up the things" was accomplished with neatness and dispatch, and five little Canarys, two Murphys, and Leo and Pius Coffee, picked up on the way, were seated in the shade of the Lee woodshed in solemn and somewhat embarrassed silence when Miss Billy appeared to welcome her guests. Her arms were full of scarlet and white reeds, a big basket swung from one arm, and a mysterious-looking cloth bag from the other. She glanced around the augmented group with-94- such surprise that Launcelot felt called upon to explain.
 
"I brung 'em along," he said, with a lordly motion of his hand toward the unexpected guests. "If you was goin' to give us something to eat, an' there ain't enough to go round, they kin go home."
 
"Launkelot!" exclaimed Jinny.
 
"The Levis wanted to come, too," said Fridoline. "Their mother's goin' to the sin an' God."
 
"Goosey!" jeered Launcelot. "Sin an' God! He means synagogue. That's one on you, Frid."
 
Fridoline, moved to tears by his brother's taunts, set up such a wrathful outcry that Miss Billy began to fear for her reputation as a hostess.
 
"Never mind, Friddie," she said consolingly. "You may go and invite the Levi children to come now, if you want to. Hurry up, and we'll have something nice planned for you when you get back." Miss Billy depos-95-ited her burden on the ground. "I'm going to let you all help with my work," she said,—"every one of you, from Ginevra down to the Baby. These long strips are for baskets, and I'm going to show you how to make them for yourselves. The big basket is for a pattern, and the bag is full of flower seeds for the little ones to sort out, and take home for gardens of their own."
 
The guests fell upon the work with great alacrity.
 
"Wait a minute," protested Miss Billy. "We're not ready yet. We must always wash our hands before we begin to work."
 
This announcement dampened the ardour of the children.
 
"Them as sorts seeds don't need to wash, do they?" asked Fridoline.
 
"I choose to sort seeds!" came in a chorus from the smaller guests.
 
"Oh, yes, they do," responded Miss Billy decidedly. "Why not, Friddie?"
 
"Dirt makes seeds grow," argued Fridoline.
 
-96-
 
"Not till they're in the ground," returned the hostess. "We'll all go up to the back porch to wash. I've got some cool water up there."
 
A thorough and painstaking scrubbing took place on the back porch, for Jinny, who was appointed Inspector of Persons, performed her duties with impartial vigour and energy. Her delight in the toilet soap was extreme, and she modestly requested a bit of it "to take home for a sample."
 
Beatrice and Maggie watched the proceedings with disgust, and the children themselves did not look upon the occasion as one of unalloyed pleasure; but Miss Billy was resolute, and the entire throng were at least clean down to their necks and up to their wrists when they took their places on the grass.
 
Fridoline surveyed his hands gloomily. "If I'd 'a' known I had ter wash I wouldn't have came," he said.
 
"Friddie!" exclaimed Ginevra reproachfully.
 
-97-
 
"Fridoline doesn't think that's a very nice way to treat company," laughed Miss Billy. "He's like Horatius.
 
"'And see,' he cried, 'the welcome,
Fair guests, that waits you here!'"
"What's Hurashus?" asked Ginevra shyly.
 
"Oh, he's a man in a story," responded Miss Billy. "The man who fought so bravely."
 
Launcelot pricked up his ears at the word "fought." "Who did he fight? Tell us about him," he commanded.
 
"Yes, please do," begged Ginevra.
 
"As soon as I get your work started for you," promised Miss Billy.
 
Her nimble fingers wove the bright reeds in and out for a few minutes. The children gathered near; Ginevra settled The Baby on her lap, and pulled the Other Baby close to her sid............