I do not wish to lay undue blame on Hutchins, who was young; but it was she who suggested that there would probably be a garden hose somewhere and that it would save time.  I know she went with Tish round the corner of the house, and that they returned in ten minutes or so, dragging a hose.

“I broke a tool-house window,” Tish observed, “but I left fifty cents on the sill to replace it.  It’s attached at the other end.  Run back, Hutchins, and turn on the water; but not too much.  We needn’t drown the little creatures.”

Well, I have never seen anything work better.  Aggie, who had refused to put a foot out of the car, stood up in it and held the hose.  As fast as she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the pails.  I spread my mackintosh out and knelt on it.

[Illustration:  As fast as she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the pails]

The thing took skill.  The worms had a way of snapping back into their holes like lightning.

Tish got about three to my one, and talked about packing them in moss and ice, and feeding them every other day.  Hutchins, however, stood on the lawn, with her hands in her pockets, and watched the house.

Suddenly, without warning, Aggie turned the hose directly on my left ear and held it there.

“There’s somebody coming!” she cried.  “Merciful Heavens, what’ll I do with the hose?”

“You can turn it away from me!” I snapped.

So she did, and at that instant a young man emerged from the shrubbery.

He did not speak at once.  Probably he could not.  I happened to look at Hutchins, and, for all her usual savoir-faire, as Charlie Sands called it, she was clearly uncomfortable.

Tish, engaged in a struggle at that moment and sitting back like a robin, did not see him at once.

“Well!” said the young man; and again:  “Well, upon my word!”

He seemed out of breath with surprise; and he took off his hat and mopped his head with a handkerchief.  And, of course, as though things were not already bad enough, Aggie sneezed at that instant, as she always does when she is excited; and for just a second the hose was on him.

It was unexpected and he almost staggered.  He looked at all of us, including Hutchins, and ran his handkerchief round inside his collar.  Then he found his voice.

“Really,” he said, “this is awfully good of you.  We do need rain—­don’t we?”

Tish was on her feet by that time, but she could not think of anything to say.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” said the young man.  “I—­I’m a bit startled myself.”

“There is nothing to make a fuss about!” said Hutchins crisply.  “We are getting worms to go fishing.”

“I see,” said the young man.  “Quite natural, I’m sure.  And where are you going fishing?”

Hutchins surprised us all by rudely turning her back on him.  Considering we were on his property and had turned his own hose on him, a little tact would have been better.