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Now Mary was oldest, and she wanted to play a quiet, ladylike play So in the afternoon the cousins made a playhouse in the yard The stumps were chairs and tables and stoves, and leaves were dishes, and sticks were the children

On the way hoht, Laura and Mary heard Pa tell Ma what happened in the field

Instead of helping Pa and Uncle Henry, Charley was ot in their way so they couldn’t swing the cradles He hid the whetstone, so they had to hunt for it when the blades needed sharpening He didn’t bring the water-jug till Uncle Henry shouted at him three or four times, and then he was sullen

After that he followed the too hard to pay any attention to hio away and not bother them

But they dropped their cradles and ran to him across the field when they heard him scream The woods were all around the field, and there were snakes in the oats

When they got to Charley, there was nothing wrong, and he laughed at them He said:

“I fooled you that time!”

Pa said if he had been Uncle Henry, he would have tanned that boy’s hide for hiht then and there But Uncle Henry did not do it

So they took a drink of water and went back to work

Three times Charley screahed at theood joke And still, Uncle Henry did not tan his hide

Then a fourth time he screamed, louder than ever Pa and Uncle Henry looked at hi wrong with him and they had been fooled so many times that they went on with their work

Charley kept on screa, but Uncle Henry said, “Let hi and let him scream

He kept on ju He did not stop At last Uncle Henry said:

“Maybe so” They laid down their cradles and went across the field to him

And all that ti up and down on a yellow jackets’ nest! The yellow jackets lived in a nest in the ground and Charley stepped on it by ht yellow jackets cas, and they hurt Charley so that he couldn’t get away