GOLDEN WEST RANCH

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The walls were a mess! Mice had fed for months on the paper or paste, it appeared, for the seven layers of wallpaper hung in tatters from the sides and ceiling as if in protest at being left behind by the people who had hung them there. One or two rooms of this would have been bad enough, but we had to fall heir to seven rooms of tattered wallpaper. Yet Mother insisted on more wallpaper to replace it. Davey, as well as Jack and Pat and the rest of us, had a jolly rip- roaring time pulling off the old paper. Mother suggested we give a prize to the one who could pull off the largest single piece. I admired her shrewdness, when I saw what a difference it made to the mess on the floor, which often fell to her to clean up.
I took Mom to town where she bought the new paper and accessories. Jeanne and I had offered to hang the paper to save the price of hired labor. Everything went along fine, until Davey decided to go up the ladder behind Jeanne to help. No one saw him until he was nearly at her heels. Then we heard him. His head struck her feet, knocking them both to the floor. As he lit, he bumped the ladder, this in turn fell, barely missing Davey. I ran to pick up the baby and found Jeanne lying in a pool of paste, which had spilled from the overturned bucket. No one was hurt, but I think that even if they had been, we still would have rolled with laughter. Sticky paste had spilled on everything! Jeanne and Davey finally laughed, too. They left the room to put on bathing suits, then climbed into the horse trough in the barnyard, while Mom and I washed their hair.