“Let Maida try it first, then,” Laura said.  “It’s very easy, Maida,” she went on with twinkling eyes.  “All you have to do is to kneel on the floor, clasp your hands behind you, and pick out one of the apples with your teeth.  You’ll each be allowed three minutes.”

“Oh, I can get a half a dozen in three minutes, I guess,” Maida said.

Laura tied a big apron around Maida’s waist and stood, watch in hand.  The children gathered in a circle about the tub.  Maida knelt on the floor, clasped her hands behind her and reached with a wide-open mouth for the nearest apple.  But at the first touch of her lips, the apple bobbed away.  She reached for another.  That bobbed away, too.  Another and another and another—­they all bobbed clean out of her reach, no matter how delicately she touched them.  That method was unsuccessful.

“One minute,” called Laura.

Maida could hear the children giggling at her.  She tried another scheme, making vicious little dabs at the apples.  Her beads and her hair-ribbon and one of her long curls dipped into the water.  But she only succeeded in sending the apples spinning across the tub.

“Two minutes!” called Laura.

“Why don’t you get those half a dozen,” the children jeered.  “You know you said it was so easy.”

Maida giggled too.  But inwardly, she made up her mind that she would get one of those apples if she dipped her whole head into the tub.  At last a brilliant idea occurred to her.  Using her chin as a guide, she poked a big rosy apple over against the side of the tub.  Wedging it there against another big apple, she held it tight.  Then she dropped her head a little, gave a sudden big bite and arose amidst applause, with the apple secure between her teeth.

After that she had the fun of watching the other children.  The older ones were adepts.  In three minutes, Rosie secured four, Dicky five and Arthur six.  Rosie did not get a drop of water on her but the boys emerged with dripping heads.  The little children were not very successful but they were more fun.  Molly swallowed so much water that she choked and had to be patted on the back.  Betsy after a few snaps of her little, rosebud mouth, seized one of the apples with her hand, sat down on the floor and calmly ate it.  But the climax was reached when Tim Doyle suddenly lurched forward and fell headlong into the tub.

“I knew he’d fall in,” Molly said in a matter-of-fact voice.  “He always falls into everything.  I brought a dry set of clothes for him.  Come, Tim!”

At this announcement, everybody shrieked.  Molly disappeared with Tim in the direction of Laura’s bedroom.  When she reappeared, sure enough, Tim had a dry suit on.

Next Laura ordered them to sit about the kitchen-table.  She gave each child an apple and a knife and directed him to pare the apple without breaking the peel.  If you think that is an easy thing to do, try it.  It seemed to Maida that she never would accomplish it.  She spoiled three apples before she succeeded.