“Caught him! Wookin’ at himseff in the wookin’-gwass! Caught him wookin’ at himseff in the _wookin’-gwass_! Wookin’ at himseff in the wookin’-GWASS!”
Meanwhile, her brother did not escape infection. He, likewise, began to leap and to vociferate, so that it was not possible to imagine any part of the house, or of the immediate neighbourhood, to which the indictment was not borne.
“Stickin’ out of his vest!” shouted Bill. “Got somep’n stickin’ out of his vest! Out of his vest, vest, vest! Out of his vest, vest, VEST!”
Then, without warning, he suddenly slapped his sister heartily upon the shoulder. “Got your tag!” he cried; darted away, and out through the open front door to the green sunshiny yard, whither Maud instantly pursued him.
Round and round the front yard they went, the two little flitting white figures, and round the house, and round and round the old back yard with its long grape-arbour and empty stable. By and by, when each had fallen separately four or five times, they collided and fell together, remaining prone, as by an unspoken agreement. Panting, they thus remained for several minutes; then Bill rose and walked into the stable, until now unexplored; and Maud followed him.
When they came out, two minutes later, Bill was carrying, to the extreme damage of his white blouse, a large can of red paint, while Maud was swinging a paint-brush that had been reposing in the can; and the look upon their two flushed faces was studious but inscrutable.
Maud applied the brush to the side of the house, leaving a broad red streak upon the gray weather-boarding; but Bill indignantly snatched the brush from her hand.
“Shame!” he said. “You know what you got once!”
“When?” Maud demanded. “When did I got it?”
“_You_ know!” her brother responded darkly. “For markin’ on the nurs’ry wall with my little box o’ paints.”
“Did!” said Bill. “And you’ll get one now if she finds out you stuck paint on the house. You will!”
“Will, too! You _know_ it’s wrong to stick paint on a house.”
“’Tisn’t!” Maud insisted. “She spanks you more’n she spanks me.”
He shook his head ominously, and for a moment Maud was depressed, but the signs of foreboding vanished from her angelic brow, and she made the natural inquiry: