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appalled. No Chewing-gum! How could she go away and leave Chewing-gum? She got up and came into the middle of the room. She raged at them all.
    “You can all go to America if you like, but I’m staying here. None of you seems to care what happens to Chewing-gum, but I do. Poor angel, you’d let him die in the snow and starve to death. All this talk about Rachel’s dancing and Tim’s piano, and nobody cares that they’re taking from me the only friend I ever had, the only person who really and truly loves me. Well, you can’t do it; I won’t go to America. I’ll chain myself and Chewing-gum to something so you can’t get us away. You’re beasts, all of you, to have thought of trying to do it. Beasts! Beasts! Beasts!”
    Jane was wound up. She had lots more to say, but Peaseblossom felt they had heard more than enough. She went over to Jane and shook her. She raised her voice so it could be heard above Jane’s.
    “That’s quite enough. California or no California, we mustn’t get slack or let discipline slip. It’s your night to help with supper.”

4
    Preparations

    Once it was certain they were going to California, the days seemed to rush by. From the Wednesday when it was decided they would go to the day they were to sail was really a fortnight, but to the children it did not feel a bit like fourteen days. To Bee and Peaseblossom, though, it was the busiest fortnight of their lives. Every day was a scramble to get into it everything that was planned.
    John was busy, too. It was he who managed to get them all passage on the Mauretania -a very difficult thing to do at short notice. The next thing was passports. All the passports were out of date, and the children had never been abroad, so they neither had passports of their own nor were down on their parents’ passports. There were forms to fill in, and photographs to be taken, and hours to be spent in the passport office and, later, hours in the American Embassy waiting for visas, but John managed it all without bothering everybody else more than could be helped. He was like a very good sheepdog getting his sheep along at a nice speed in the right direction, with only an occasional little sharp bark. Oddly enough, though he looked terribly tired, hurrying about seemed to do him good; he was sleeping better than He had been since the accident. Best of all, when the tickets and the visaed passports were in the house, he labeled his portable typewriter and packed several packages of typing paper.
    The children had their own affairs to put in order. The most difficult affair was, of course, Chewing-gum. Jane stuck to what she had said. If Chewing-gum was not going, neither would she go. She made awful threats. They would have to carry her to the boat, and she would scream all across the Atlantic. It was Dr. Smith who found the way out. He stopped by on his round of visits on the Monday morning after the great Wednesday to ask if there was any news from Aunt Cora. He did not need to come far inside the house to see there was, for Bee and Peaseblossom were packing in the hall. The children were at school, and John was at the passport office; but Bee and Peaseblossom were glad to sit down for a minute and tell him all about it.
    “The only trouble,” Bee said, “is Jane. She says she won’t go without Chewing-gum.”
    Peaseblossom broke in. “Don’t think we are paying any attention to her. She will, of course, do exactly as she’s told and be punished if she behaves badly.”
    Bee went on. “But we don’t want anything to upset John, for he really does seem a little better. The other two are being splendidly helpful, and it’s particularly good of Rachel, as she had just been engaged to dance in a musical show.”
    Dr. Smith thought for a minute; then he made a clicking noise with his tongue and held up a finger.
    “Let me have a talk with Jane. You’ve all got to have certificates that you were recently vaccinated and that it took all right, before you