VALLEY

144 RAINBOW VALLEYit was, he turned down his Ewald with a feeling ofannoyance and went across the hall to the parlour.Mrs. Davis was sitting on the sofa, looking abouther with an air of scornful disapproval.What a scandalous room! There were no curtainson the window.Mrs. Davis did not know that Faithand Una had taken them down the daybefore to useas court trains in one of their plays and had forgottento put them up again, but she could not have accusedthose windows more fiercely if she had known. Theblinds were cracked and torn. The pictures on thewalls were crooked; the rugs were awry; the vaseswere full of faded flowers; the dust lay in heapsliterally in heaps."What are we coming to?" Mrs. Davis asked herself,and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth.Jerry and Carl had been whooping and sliding downthe bannisters as she came through the hall. Theydid not see her and continued whooping and sliding,and Mrs. Davis was convinced they did it on purpose.Faith's pet rooster ambled through the hall, stood inthe parlour doorway and looked at her. Not liking herlooks, he did not venture in.Mrs. Davis gave a scornfulsniff. A pretty manse, indeed, where roostersparaded the halls and stared people out of countenance."Shoo, there," commanded Mrs. Davis, poking herflounced, changeable-silk parasol at him.Adam shooed. He was a wise rooster and Mrs.Davis had wrung the necks of so manyroosters with