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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The S. W. F. Club, by Caroline E. Jacobs
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The S. W. F. Club
+
+
+Author: Caroline E. Jacobs
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2005  [eBook #15562]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE S. W. F. CLUB***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+THE S. W. F. CLUB
+
+by
+
+CAROLINE E. JACOBS
+
+Author of _Joan of Jupiter Inn_, _Joan's Jolly Vacation_,
+_Patricia_, etc.
+
+The Goldsmith Publishing Co.
+Cleveland, Ohio
+George W. Jacobs & Company
+
+1912
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I  PAULINE'S FLAG
+   II  THE MAPLES
+  III  UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER
+   IV  BEGINNINGS
+    V  BEDELIA
+   VI  PERSONALLY CONDUCTED
+  VII  HILARY'S TURN
+ VIII  SNAP-SHOTS
+   IX  AT THE MANOR
+    X  THE END OF SUMMER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PAULINE'S FLAG
+
+Pauline dropped the napkin she was hemming and, leaning back in her
+chair, stared soberly down into the rain-swept garden.
+
+Overhead, Patience was having a "clarin' up scrape" in her particular
+corner of the big garret, to the tune of "There's a Good Time Coming."
+
+Pauline drew a quick breath; probably, there was a good time
+coming--any number of them--only they were not coming her way; they
+would go right by on the main road, they always did.
+
+"'There's a good time coming,'" Patience insisted shrilly, "'Help it
+on!  Help it on!'"
+
+Pauline drew another quick breath.  She would help them on!  If they
+would none of them stop on their own account, they must be flagged.
+And--yes, she would do it--right now.
+
+Getting up, she brought her writing-portfolio from the closet, clearing
+a place for it on the little table before the window.  Then her eyes
+went back to the dreary, rain-soaked garden.  How did one begin a
+letter to an uncle one had never seen; and of whom one meant to ask a
+great favor?
+
+But at last, after more than one false start, the letter got itself
+written, after a fashion.
+
+Pauline read it over to herself, a little dissatisfied pucker between
+her brows:--
+
+
+_Mr. Paul Almy Shaw,
+  New York City, New York_.
+
+MY DEAR UNCLE PAUL:  First, I should like you to understand that
+neither father nor mother know that I am writing this letter to you;
+and that if they did, I think they would forbid it; and I should like
+you to believe, too, that if it were not for Hilary I should not dream
+of writing it.  You know so little about us, that perhaps you do not
+remember which of us Hilary is.  She comes next to me, and is just
+thirteen.  She hasn't been well for a long time, not since she had to
+leave school last winter, and the doctor says that what she needs is a
+thorough change.  Mother and I have talked it over and over, but we
+simply can't manage it.  I would try to earn some money, but I haven't
+a single accomplishment; besides I don't see how I could leave home,
+and anyway it would take so long, and Hilary needs a change now.  And
+so I am writing to ask you to please help us out a little.  I do hope
+you won't be angry at my asking; and I hope very, very much, that you
+will answer favorably.
+
+    I remain,
+        Very respectfully,
+            PAULINE ALMY SHAW.
+WINTON, VT., May Sixteenth.
+
+
+Pauline laughed rather nervously as she slipped her letter into an
+envelope and addressed it.  It wasn't a very big flag, but perhaps it
+would serve her purpose.
+
+Tucking the letter into her blouse, Pauline ran down-stairs to the
+sitting-room, where her mother and Hilary were.  "I'm going down to the
+post-office, mother," she said; "any errands?"
+
+"My dear, in this rain?"
+
+"There won't be any mail for us, Paul," Hilary said, glancing
+listlessly up from the book she was trying to read; "you'll only get
+all wet and uncomfortable for nothing."
+
+Pauline's gray eyes were dancing; "No," she agreed, "I don't suppose
+there will be any mail for us--to-day; but I want a walk.  It won't
+hurt me, mother.  I love to be out in the rain."
+
+And all the way down the slippery village street the girl's eyes
+continued to dance with excitement.  It was so much to have actually
+started her ball rolling; and, at the moment, it seemed that Uncle Paul
+must send it bounding back in the promptest and most delightful of
+letters.  He had never married, and somewhere down at the bottom of his
+apparently crusty, old heart he must have kept a soft spot for the
+children of his only brother.
+
+Thus Pauline's imagination ran on, until near the post-office she met
+her father.  The whole family had just finished a tour of the West in
+Mr. Paul Shaw's private car--of course, he must have a private car,
+wasn't he a big railroad man?--and Pauline had come back to Winton long
+enough to gather up her skirts a little more firmly when she saw Mr.
+Shaw struggling up the hill against the wind.
+
+"Pauline!" he stopped, straightening his tall, scholarly figure.  "What
+brought you out in such a storm?"
+
+With a sudden feeling of uneasiness, Pauline wondered what he would say
+if she were to explain exactly what it was that had brought her out.
+With an impulse towards at least a half-confession, she said hurriedly,
+"I wanted to post a letter I'd just written; I'll be home almost as
+soon as you are, father."
+
+Then she ran on down the street.  All at once she felt her courage
+weakening; unless she got her letter posted immediately she felt she
+should end by tearing it up.
+
+When it had slipped from her sight through the narrow slit labeled
+"LETTERS," she stood a moment, almost wishing it were possible to get
+it back again.
+
+She went home rather slowly.  Should she confess at once, or wait until
+Uncle Paul's answer came?  It should be here inside of a week, surely;
+and if it were favorable--and, oh, it must be favorable--would not that
+in itself seem to justify her in what she had done?
+
+On the front piazza, Patience was waiting for her, a look of mischief
+in her blue eyes.  Patience was ten, a red-haired, freckled slip of a
+girl.  She danced about Pauline now.  "Why didn't you tell me you were
+going out so I could've gone, too?  And what have you been up to, Paul
+Shaw?  Something!  You needn't tell me you haven't."
+
+"I'm not going to tell you anything," Pauline answered, going on into
+the house.  The study door was half open, and when she had taken off
+her things, Pauline stood a moment a little uncertainly outside it.
+Then suddenly, much to her small sister's disgust, she went in, closing
+the door behind her.
+
+Mr. Shaw was leaning back in his big chair at one corner of the
+fireplace.  "Well," he asked, looking up, "did you get your letter in
+in time, my dear?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't the time."  Pauline sat down on a low bench at the other
+end of the fireplace.  "It was that I wanted to feel that it was really
+mailed.  Did you ever feel that way about a letter, father?  And as if,
+if you didn't hurry and get it in--you wouldn't--mail it?"
+
+Something in her tone made her father glance at her more closely; it
+was very like the tone in which Patience was apt to make her rather
+numerous confessions.  Then it occurred to him, that, whether by
+accident or design, she was sitting on the very stool on which Patience
+usually placed herself at such times, and which had gained thereby the
+name of "the stool of penitence."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "I have written such letters once or twice in my
+life."
+
+Pauline stooped to straighten out the hearth rug.  "Father," she said
+abruptly; "I have been writing to Uncle Paul."  She drew a sharp breath
+of relief.
+
+"You have been writing to your Uncle Paul!  About what, Pauline?"
+
+And Pauline told him.  When she had finished, Mr. Shaw sat for some
+moments without speaking, his eyes on the fire.
+
+"It didn't seem very--wrong, at the time," Pauline ventured.  "I had to
+do something for Hilary."
+
+"Why did you not consult your mother, or myself, before taking such a
+step, Pauline?"
+
+"I was afraid--if I did--that you would--forbid it; and I was so
+anxious to do something.  It's nearly a month now since Dr. Brice said
+Hilary must have a change.  We used to have such good times
+together--Hilary and I--but we never have fun anymore--she doesn't care
+about anything; and to-day it seemed as if I couldn't bear it any
+longer, so I wrote.  I--I am sorry, if you're displeased with me,
+father, and yet, if Uncle Paul writes back favorably, I'm afraid I
+can't help being glad I wrote."
+
+Mr. Shaw rose, lighting the low reading-lamp, standing on the study
+table.  "You are frank enough after the event, at least, Pauline.  To
+be equally so, I am displeased; displeased and exceedingly annoyed.
+However, we will let the matter rest where it is until you have heard
+from your uncle, I should advise your saying nothing to your sisters
+until his reply comes.  I am afraid you will find it disappointing."
+
+Pauline flushed.  "I never intended telling Hilary anything about it
+unless I had good news for her; as for Patience--"
+
+Out in the hall again, with the study door closed behind her, Pauline
+stood a moment choking back a sudden lump in her throat.  Would Uncle
+Paul treat her letter as a mere piece of school-girl impertinence, as
+father seemed to?
+
+From the sitting-room came an impatient summons.  "Paul, will you never
+come!"
+
+"What is it, Hilary?" Pauline asked, coming to sit at one end of the
+old sofa.
+
+"That's what I want to know," Hilary answered from the other end.
+"Impatience says you've been writing all sorts of mysterious letters
+this afternoon, and that you came home just now looking like---"
+
+"Well, like what?"
+
+"Like you'd been up to something--and weren't quite sure how the
+grown-ups were going to take it," Patience explained from the rug
+before the fire.
+
+"How do you know I have been writing--anything?" Pauline asked.
+
+"There, you see!"  Patience turned to Hilary, "she doesn't deny it!"
+
+"I'm not taking the trouble to deny or confirm little girl nonsense,"
+Pauline declared.  "But what makes you think I've been writing letters?"
+
+"Oh, 'by the pricking of my thumbs'!"  Patience rolled over, and
+resting her sharp little chin in her hands, stared up at her sisters
+from under her mop of short red curls.  "Pen!  Ink!  Paper!  And such a
+lot of torn-up scraps!  It's really very simple!"
+
+But Pauline was on her way to the dining-room.  "Terribly convincing,
+isn't it?"  Her tone should have squelched Patience, but it didn't.
+
+"You can't fool me!" that young person retorted.  "I know you've been
+up to something!  And I'm pretty sure father doesn't approve, from the
+way you waited out there in the hall just now."
+
+Pauline did not answer; she was busy laying the cloth for supper.
+"Anything up, Paul?" Hilary urged, following her sister out to the
+dining-room.
+
+"The barometer--a very little; I shouldn't wonder if we had a clear day
+to-morrow."
+
+"You are as provoking as Impatience!  But I needn't have asked; nothing
+worth while ever does happen to us."
+
+"You know perfectly well, Pauline Almy Shaw!"  Patience proclaimed,
+from the curtained archway between the rooms.  "You know perfectly
+well, that the ev'dence against you is most in-crim-i-na-ting!"
+Patience delighted in big words.
+
+"Hilary," Pauline broke in, "I forgot to tell you, I met Mrs. Dane this
+morning; she wants us to get up a social--'If the young ladies at the
+parsonage will,' and so forth."
+
+"I hate socials!  Besides, there aren't any 'young ladies' at the
+parsonage; or, at any rate, only one.  I shan't have to be a young lady
+for two years yet."
+
+"Most in-crim-i-na-ting!" Patience repeated insistently; "you wrote."
+
+Pauline turned abruptly and going into the pantry began taking down the
+cups and saucers for the table.  As soon as Hilary had gone back to the
+sitting-room, she called softly, "Patty, O Patty!"
+
+Patience grinned wickedly; she was seldom called Patty, least of all by
+Pauline.  "Well?" she answered.
+
+"Come here--please," and when Patience was safely inside the pantry,
+Pauline shut the door gently--"Now see here, Impatience--"
+
+"That isn't what you called me just now!"
+
+"Patty then--Listen, suppose--suppose I have been--trying to do
+something to--to help Hilary to get well; can't you see that I wouldn't
+want her to know, until I was sure, really sure, it was going to come
+to something?"
+
+Patience gave a little jump of excitement.  "How jolly!  But who have
+you been writing to--about it, Paul!"
+
+"I haven't said that--"
+
+"See here, Paul, I'll play fair, if you do; but if you go trying to act
+any 'grown-up sister' business I'll--"
+
+And Pauline capitulated.  "I can't tell you about it yet, Patty; father
+said not to.  I want you to promise not to ask questions, or say
+anything about it, before Hilary.  We don't want her to get all worked
+up, thinking something nice is going to happen, and then maybe have her
+disappointed."
+
+"Will it be nice--very nice?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"And will I be in it?"
+
+"I don't know.  I don't know what it'll be, or when it'll be."
+
+"Oh, dear!  I wish you did.  I can't think who it is you wrote to,
+Paul.  And why didn't father like your doing it?"
+
+"I haven't said that he--"
+
+"Paul, you're very tiresome.  Didn't he know you were going to do it?"
+
+Pauline gathered up her cups and saucers without answering.
+
+"Then he didn't," Patience observed.  "Does mother know about it?"
+
+"I mean to tell her as soon as I get a good chance," Pauline said
+impatiently, going back to the dining-room.
+
+When she returned a few moments later, she found Patience still in the
+pantry, sitting thoughtfully on the old, blue sugar bucket.  "I know,"
+Patience announced triumphantly.  "You've been writing to Uncle Paul!"
+
+Pauline gasped and fled to the kitchen; there were times when flight
+was the better part of discretion, in dealing with the youngest member
+of the Shaw family.
+
+On the whole, Patience behaved very well that evening, only, on going
+to bid her father good-night, did she ask anxiously, how long it took
+to send a letter to New York and get an answer.
+
+"That depends considerably upon the promptness with which the party
+written to answers the letter," Mr. Shaw told her.
+
+"A week?" Patience questioned.
+
+"Probably--if not longer."
+
+Patience sighed.
+
+"Have _you_ been writing a letter to someone in New York?" her father
+asked.
+
+"No, indeed," the child said gravely, "but," she looked up, answering
+his glance.  "Paul didn't tell me, father; I--guessed.  Uncle Paul does
+live in New York, doesn't he?"
+
+"Yes," Mr. Shaw answered, almost sharply.  "Now run to bed, my dear."
+
+But when the stairs were reached.  Patience most certainly did not run.
+"I think people are very queer," she said to herself, "they seem to
+think _ten_ years isn't a bit more grown-up than six or seven."
+
+"Mummy," she asked, when later her mother came to take away her light,
+"father and Uncle Paul are brethren, aren't they?"
+
+"My dear!  What put that into your head?"
+
+"Aren't they?"
+
+"Certainly, dear."
+
+"Then why don't they 'dwell together in unity'?"
+
+"Patience!"  Mrs. Shaw stared down at the sharp inquisitive little face.
+
+"Why don't they?" Patience persisted.  If persistency be a virtue,
+Patience was to be highly commended.
+
+"My dear, who has said that they do not?"
+
+Patience shrugged; as if things had always to be said.  "But, mummy--"
+
+"Go to sleep now, dear."  Mrs. Shaw bent to kiss her good-night.
+
+"All the same," Patience confided to the darkness, "I know they don't."
+She gave a little shiver of delight--something very mysterious was
+afoot evidently.
+
+Out on the landing, Mrs. Shaw found Pauline waiting for her.  "Come
+into your room, mother, please, I've started up the fire; I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"I thought as much," her mother answered.  She sat down in the big
+armchair and Pauline drew up before the fire.  "I've been expecting it
+all the evening."
+
+Pauline dropped down on the floor, her head against her mother's knee.
+"This family is dreadfully keen-sighted.  Mother dear, please don't be
+angry--" and Pauline made confession.
+
+When she had finished, Mrs. Shaw sat for some moments, as her husband
+had done, her eyes on the fire.  "You told him that we could not manage
+it, Pauline?" she said at last.  "My dear, how could you!"
+
+"But, mother dear, I was--desperate; something has to be done
+for--Hilary, and I had to do it!"
+
+"Do you suppose your father and I do not realize that quite as well as
+you do, Pauline?"
+
+"You and I have talked it over and over, and father never
+says--anything."
+
+"Not to you, perhaps; but he is giving the matter very careful
+consideration, and later he hopes--"
+
+"Mother dear, that is so indefinite!" Pauline broke in.  "And I can't
+see--Father is Uncle Paul's only brother!  If I were rich, and Hilary
+were not and needed things, I would want her to let me know."
+
+"It is possible, that under certain conditions, Hilary would not wish
+you to know."  Mrs. Shaw hesitated, then she said slowly, "You know,
+Pauline, that your uncle is much older than your father; so much older,
+that he seemed to stand--when your father was a boy--more in the light
+of a father to him, than an older brother.  He was much opposed to your
+father's going into the ministry, he wanted him to go into business
+with him.  He is a strong-willed man, and does not easily relinquish
+any plan of his own making.  It went hard with him, when your father
+refused to yield; later, when your father received the call to this
+parish, your uncle quite as strongly opposed his accepting it--burying
+himself alive in a little out-of-the-way hole, he called it.  It came
+to the point, finally, on your uncle's insisting on his making it a
+choice between himself and Winton.  He refused to ever come near the
+place and the two or three letters your father wrote at first remained
+unanswered.  The breach between them has been one of the hardest trials
+your father has had to bear."
+
+"Oh," Pauline cried miserably, "what a horrid interfering thing father
+must think me!  Rushing in where I had no right to!  I wish I'd
+known--I just thought--you see, father speaks of Uncle Paul now and
+then--that maybe they'd only--grown apart--and that if Uncle Paul knew!
+But perhaps my letter will get lost.  It would serve me right; and yet,
+if it does, I'm afraid I can't help feeling somewhat disappointed--on
+Hilary's account."
+
+Her mother smiled.  "We can only wait and see.  I would rather you said
+nothing of what I have been telling you to either Hilary or Patience,
+Pauline."
+
+"I won't, Mother Shaw.  It seems I have a lot of secrets from Hilary.
+And I won't write any more such letters without consulting you or
+father, you can depend on that."
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw's answer did not come within the allotted week.  It was
+the longest week Pauline had ever known; and when the second went by
+and still no word from her uncle, the waiting and uncertainty became
+very hard to bear, all the harder, that her usual confidant, Hilary,
+must not be allowed to suspect anything.
+
+The weather had turned suddenly warm, and Hilary's listlessness had
+increased proportionately, which probably accounted for the dying out
+of what little interest she had felt at first in Patience's "mysterious
+letter."
+
+Patience, herself, was doing her best to play fair; fortunately, she
+was in school the greater part of the day, else the strain upon her
+powers of self-control might have proved too heavy.
+
+"Mother," Pauline said one evening, lingering in her mother's room,
+after Hilary had gone to bed, "I don't believe Uncle Paul means
+answering at all.  I wish I'd never asked him to do anything."
+
+"So do I, Pauline.  Still it is rather early yet for you to give up
+hope.  It's hard waiting, I know, dear, but that is something we all
+have to learn to do, sooner or later."
+
+"I don't think 'no news is good news,'" Pauline said; then she
+brightened.  "Oh, Mother Shaw!  Suppose the letter is on the way now,
+and that Hilary is to have a sea voyage!  You'd have to go, too."
+
+"Pauline, Pauline, not so fast!  Listen, dear, we might send Hilary out
+to The Maples for a week or two.  Mrs. Boyd would be delighted to have
+her; and it wouldn't be too far away, in case we should be getting her
+ready for that--sea voyage."
+
+"I don't believe she'd care to go; it's quieter than here at home."
+
+"But it would be a change.  I believe I'll suggest it to her in the
+morning."
+
+But when Mrs. Shaw did suggest it the next morning, Hilary was quite of
+Pauline's opinion.  "I shouldn't like it a bit, mother!  It would be
+worse than home--duller, I mean; and Mrs. Boyd would fuss over me so,"
+she said impatiently.
+
+"You used to like going there, Hilary."
+
+"Mother, you can't want me to go."
+
+"I think it might do you good, Hilary.  I should like you to try it."
+
+"Please, mother, I don't see the use of bothering with little half-way
+things."
+
+"I do, Hilary, when they are the only ones within reach."
+
+The girl moved restlessly, settling her hammock cushions; then she lay
+looking out over the sunny garden with discontented eyes.
+
+It was a large old-fashioned garden, separated on the further side by a
+low hedge from the old ivy-covered church.  On the back steps of the
+church, Sextoness Jane was shaking out her duster.  She was old and
+gray and insignificant looking; her duties as sexton, in which she had
+succeeded her father, were her great delight.  The will with which she
+sang and worked now seemed to have in it something of reproach for the
+girl stretched out idly in the hammock.  Nothing more than half-way
+things, and not too many of those, had ever come Sextoness Jane's way.
+Yet she was singing now over her work.
+
+Hilary moved impatiently, turning her back on the garden and the bent
+old figure moving about in the church beyond; but, somehow, she
+couldn't turn her back on what that bent old figure had suddenly come
+to stand for.
+
+Fifteen minutes later, she sat up, pushing herself slowly back and
+forth.  "I wish Jane had chosen any other morning to clean the church
+in, Mother Shaw!" she protested with spirit.
+
+Her mother looked up from her mending.  "Why, dear?  It is her regular
+day."
+
+"Couldn't she do it, I wonder, on an irregular day!  Anyhow, if she
+had, I shouldn't have to go to The Maples this afternoon.  Must I take
+a trunk, mother?"
+
+"Hilary!  But what has Jane to do with your going?"
+
+"Pretty nearly everything, I reckon.  Must I, mother?"
+
+"No, indeed, dear; and you are not to go at all, unless you can do it
+willingly."
+
+"Oh, I'm fairly resigned; don't press me too hard, Mother Shaw.  I
+think I'll go tell Paul now."
+
+"Well," Pauline said, "I'm glad you've decided to go, Hilary.  I--that
+is, maybe it won't be for very long."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MAPLES
+
+That afternoon Pauline drove Hilary out to the big, busy, pleasant
+farm, called The Maples.
+
+As they jogged slowly down the one principal street of the sleepy, old
+town, Pauline tried to imagine that presently they would turn off down
+the by-road, leading to the station.  Through the still air came the
+sound of the afternoon train, panting and puffing to be off with as
+much importance as the big train, which later, it would connect with
+down at the junction.
+
+"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you thinking about?"
+
+Pauline slapped the reins lightly across old Fanny's plump sides.  "Oh,
+different things--traveling for one."  Suppose Uncle Paul's letter
+should come in this afternoon's mail!  That she would find it waiting
+for her when she got home!
+
+"So was I," Hilary said.  "I was wishing that you and I were going off
+on that train, Paul."
+
+"Where to?" Paul asked.  After all, it couldn't do any harm--Hilary
+would think it one of their "pretend" talks, and it would he nice to
+have some definite basis to build on later.
+
+"Anywhere," Hilary answered.  "I would like to go to the seashore
+somewhere; but most anywhere, where there were people and interesting
+things to do and see, would do."
+
+"Yes," Pauline agreed.
+
+"There's Josie," Hilary said, and her sister drew rein, as a girl came
+to the edge of the walk to speak to them.
+
+"Going away?" she asked, catching sight of the valise.
+
+"Only out to the Boyds'," Pauline told her, "to leave Hilary."
+
+Josie shifted the strap of school-books under her arm impatiently.
+"'Only!'" she repeated.  "Well, I just wish I was going, too; it's a
+deal pleasanter out there, than in a stuffy school room these days."
+
+"It's stupid--and you both know it," Hilary protested.  She glanced
+enviously at Josie's strap of hooks.  "And when school closes, you'll
+be through for good, Josie Brice.  We shan't finish together, after
+all, now."
+
+"Oh, I'm not through yet," Josie assured her.  "Father'll be going out
+past The Maples Saturday morning, I'll get him to take me along."
+
+Hilary brightened.  "Don't forget," she urged, and as she and Pauline
+drove on, she added, "I suppose I can stick it out for a week."
+
+"Well, I should think as much.  _Will_ you go on, Fanny!"  Pauline
+slapped the dignified, complacent Fanny with rather more severity than
+before.  "She's one great mass of laziness," she declared.  "Father's
+spoiled her a great deal more than he ever has any of us."
+
+It was a three-mile drive from the village to The Maples, through
+pleasant winding roads, hardly deserving of a more important title than
+lane.  Now and then, from the top of a low hill, they caught a glimpse
+of the great lake beyond, shining in the afternoon sunlight, a little
+ruffled by the light breeze sweeping down to it from the mountains
+bordering it on the further side.
+
+Hilary leaned back in the wide shaded gig; she looked tired, and yet
+the new touch of color in her cheeks was not altogether due to
+weariness.  "The ride's done you good," Pauline said.
+
+"I wonder what there'll be for supper," Hilary remarked.  "You'll stay,
+Paul?"
+
+"If you promise to eat a good one."  It was comforting to have Hilary
+actually wondering what they would have.
+
+They had reached the broad avenue of maples leading from the road up to
+the house.  It was a long, low, weather-stained house, breathing an
+unmistakable air of generous and warm-hearted hospitality.  Pauline
+never came to it, without a sense of pity for the kindly elderly
+couple, who were so fond of young folks, and who had none of their own.
+
+Mrs. Boyd had seen them coming, and she came out to meet them, as they
+turned into the dooryard.  And an old dog, sunning himself on the
+doorstep, rose with a slow wag of welcome.
+
+"Mother's sent you something she was sure you would like to have,"
+Pauline said.  "Please, will you take in a visitor for a few days?" she
+added, laying a hand on Hilary's.
+
+"You've brought Hilary out to stop?" Mrs. Boyd cried delightedly.  "Now
+I call that mighty good of your mother.  You come right 'long in, both
+of you: you're sure you can't stop, too, Pauline?"
+
+"Only to supper, thank you."
+
+Mrs. Boyd had the big valise out from under the seat by now.  "Come
+right 'long in," she repeated.  "You're tired, aren't you, Hilary?  But
+a good night's rest'll set you up wonderful.  Take her into the spare
+room, Pauline.  Dear me, I must have felt you was coming, seeing that I
+aired it out beautiful only this morning.  I'll go call Mr. Boyd to
+take Fanny to the barn."
+
+"Isn't she the dearest thing!" Pauline declared, as she and Hilary went
+indoors.
+
+The spare room was back of the parlor, a large comfortable room, with
+broad windows facing south and west, and a small vine-covered porch all
+its own on the south side of the room.
+
+Pauline pulled forward a great chintz-cushioned rocker, putting her
+sister into it, and opened the porch door.  Beyond lay a wide, sloping
+meadow and beyond the meadow, the lake sparkled and rippled in the
+sunshine.
+
+"If you're not contented here, Hilary Shaw!" Pauline said, standing in
+the low doorway.  "Suppose you pretend you've never been here before!
+I reckon you'd travel a long ways to find a nicer place to stay in."
+
+"I shouldn't doubt it if you were going to stay with me, Paul; I know
+I'm going to be homesick."
+
+Pauline stretched out a hand to Captain, the old dog, who had come
+around to pay his compliments.  Captain liked visitors--when he was
+convinced that they really were visitors, not peddlers, nor agents,
+quite as well as his master and mistress did.  "You'd be homesick
+enough, if you really were off on your travels--you'd better get used
+to it.  Hadn't she, Captain?"  Pauline went to unpack the valise,
+opening the drawers of the old-fashioned mahogany bureau with a little
+breath of pleasure.  "Lavender!  Hilary."
+
+Hilary smiled, catching some of her sister's enthusiasm.  She leaned
+back among her cushions, her eyes on the stretch of shining water at
+the far end of the pasture.  "I wish you were going to be here, Paul,
+so that we could go rowing.  I wonder if I'll ever feel as if I could
+row again, myself."
+
+"Of course you will, and a great deal sooner than you think."  Pauline
+hung Hilary's dressing-gown across the foot of the high double bed.
+"Now I think you're all settled, ma'am, and I hope to your
+satisfaction.  Isn't it a veritable 'chamber of peace,' Hilary?"
+
+Through the open door and windows came the distant tinkle of a cow
+bell, and other farm sounds.  There came, too, the scent of the early
+May pinks growing in the borders of Mrs. Boyd's old-fashioned flower
+beds.  Already the peace and quiet of the house, the homely comfort,
+had done Hilary good; the thought of the long simple days to come, were
+not so depressing as they had seemed when thought of that morning.
+
+"Bless me, I'd forgotten, but I've a bit of news for you," Mrs. Boyd
+said, coming in, a moment or so later; "the manor's taken for the
+summer."
+
+"Really?" Pauline cried, "why it's been empty for ever and ever so
+long."
+
+The manor was an old rambling stone house, standing a little back from
+a bit of sandy beach, that jutted out into the lake about a mile from
+The Maples.  It was a pleasant place, with a tiny grove of its own, and
+good-sized garden, which, year after year, in spite of neglect, was
+bright with old-fashioned hardy annuals planted long ago, when the
+manor had been something more than an old neglected house, at the mercy
+of a chance tenant.
+
+"Just a father and daughter.  They've got old Betsy Todd to look after
+them," Mrs. Boyd went on.  "The girl's about your age, Hilary.  You
+wasn't looking to find company of that sort so near, was you?"
+
+Hilary looked interested.  "No," she answered.  "But, after all, the
+manor's a mile away."
+
+"Oh, she's back and forth every day--for milk, or one thing or another;
+she's terribly interested in the farm; father's taken a great notion to
+her.  She'll be over after supper, you'll see; and then I'll make you
+acquainted with her."
+
+"Are they city people?" Pauline asked.
+
+"From New York!" Mrs. Boyd told her proudly.  From her air one would
+have supposed she had planned the whole affair expressly for Hilary's
+benefit.  "Their name's Dayre."
+
+"What is the girl's first name?" Pauline questioned.
+
+"Shirley; it's a queer name for a girl, to my thinking."
+
+"Is she pretty?" Pauline went on.
+
+"Not according to my notions; father says she is.  She's thin and dark,
+and I never did see such a mane of hair--and it ain't always too tidy,
+neither--but she has got nice eyes and a nice friendly way of talking.
+Looks to me, like she hasn't been brought up by a woman."
+
+"She sounds--interesting," Pauline said, and when Mrs. Boyd had left
+them, to make a few changes in her supper arrangements, Pauline turned
+eagerly to Hilary.  "You're in luck, Hilary Shaw!  The newest kind of
+new people; even if it isn't a new place!"
+
+"How do you know they'll, or rather, she'll, want to know me?" Hilary
+asked, with one of those sudden changes of mood an invalid often shows,
+"or I her?  We haven't seen her yet.  Paul, do you suppose Mrs. Boyd
+would mind letting me have supper in here?"
+
+"Oh, Hilary, she's laid the table in the living-room!  I heard her
+doing it.  She'd be ever so disappointed."
+
+"Well," Hilary said, "come on then."
+
+Out in the living-room, they found Mr. Boyd waiting for them, and so
+heartily glad to see them, that Hilary's momentary impatience vanished.
+To Pauline's delight, she really brought quite an appetite to her
+supper.
+
+"You should've come out here long ago, Hilary," Mr. Boyd told her, and
+he insisted on her having a second helping of the creamed toast,
+prepared especially in her honor.
+
+Before supper was over.  Captain's deep-toned bark proclaimed a
+newcomer, or newcomers, seeing that it was answered immediately by a
+medley of shrill barks, in the midst of which a girl's voice sounded
+authoritively--"Quiet, Phil!  Pat, I'm ashamed of you!  Pudgey, if
+you're not good instantly, you shall stay at home to-morrow night!"
+
+A moment later, the owner of the voice appeared at the porch door, "May
+I come in, Mrs. Boyd?" she asked.
+
+"Come right in, Miss Shirley.  I've a couple of young friends here, I
+want you should get acquainted with," Mrs. Boyd cried.
+
+"You ain't had your supper yet, have you, Miss Shirley?" Mr. Boyd asked.
+
+"Father and I had tea out on the lake," Shirley answered, "but I'm
+hungry enough again by now, for a slice of Mrs. Boyd's bread and
+butter."
+
+And presently, she was seated at the table, chatting away with Paul and
+Hilary, as if they were old acquaintances, asking Mr. Boyd various
+questions about farm matters and answering Mrs. Boyd's questions
+regarding Betsy Todd and her doings, with the most delightful air of
+good comradeship imaginable.
+
+"Oh, me!"  Pauline pushed hack her chair regretfully, "I simply must
+go, it'll be dark before I get home, as it is."
+
+"I reckon it will, deary," Mrs. Boyd agreed, "so I won't urge you to
+stay longer.  Father, you just whistle to Colin to bring Fanny 'round."
+
+Hilary followed her sister into the bedroom.  "You'll be over soon,
+Paul?"
+
+Pauline, putting on her hat before the glass, turned quickly.  "As soon
+as I can.  Hilary, don't you like her?"
+
+Hilary balanced herself on the arm of the big, old-fashioned rocker.
+"I think so.  Anyway, I love to watch her talk; she talks all over her
+face."
+
+They went out to the gig, where Mr. and Mrs. Boyd and Shirley were
+standing.  Shirley was feeding Fanny with handfuls of fresh grass.
+"Isn't she a fat old dear!" she said.
+
+"She's a fat old poke!" Pauline returned.  "Mayn't I give you a lift?
+I can go 'round by the manor road 's well as not."
+
+Shirley accepted readily, settling herself in the gig, and balancing
+her pail of milk on her knee carefully.
+
+"Good-by," Pauline called.  "Mind, you're to be ever and ever so much
+better, next time I come, Hilary."
+
+"Your sister has been sick?" Shirley asked, her voice full of
+sympathetic interest.
+
+"Not sick--exactly; just run down and listless."
+
+Shirley leaned a little forward, drawing in long breaths of the clear
+evening air.  "I don't see how anyone can ever get run down--here, in
+this air; I'm hardly indoors at all.  Father and I have our meals out
+on the porch.  You ought to have seen Betsy Todd's face, the first time
+I proposed it.  'Ain't the dining-room to your liking, miss?'" she
+asked.
+
+"Betsy Todd's a queer old thing," Pauline commented.  "Father has the
+worst time, getting her to come to church."
+
+"We were there last Sunday," Shirley said.  "I'm afraid we were rather
+late; it's a pretty old church, isn't it?  I suppose you live in that
+square white house next to it?"
+
+"Yes," Pauline answered.  "Father came to Winton just after he was
+married, so we girls have never lived anywhere else nor been anywhere
+else--that counted.  Any really big city, I mean.  We're dreadfully
+tired of Winton--Hilary, especially."
+
+"It's a mighty pretty place."
+
+"I suppose so."  Pauline slapped old Fanny impatiently.  "Will you go
+on!"
+
+Fanny was making forward most reluctantly; the Boyd barn had been very
+much to her liking.  Now, as the three dogs made a swift rush at her
+leaping and barking around her, she gave a snort of disgust, quickening
+her pace involuntarily.
+
+"Don't call them off, please!" Pauline begged Shirley.  "She isn't in
+the least scared, and it's perfectly refreshing to find that she can
+move."
+
+"All the same, discipline must be maintained," Shirley insisted; and at
+her command the dogs fell behind.
+
+"Have you been here long?" Pauline asked.
+
+"About two weeks.  We were going further up the lake--just on a
+sketching trip,--and we saw this house from the deck of the boat; it
+looked so delightful, and so deserted and lonely, that we came back
+from the next landing to see about it.  We took it at once and sent for
+a lot of traps from the studio at home, they aren't here yet."
+
+Pauline looked her interest.  It seemed a very odd, attractive way of
+doing things, no long tiresome plannings of ways and means beforehand.
+Suppose--when Uncle Paul's letter came--they could set off in such
+fashion, with no definite point in view, and stop wherever they felt
+like it.
+
+"I can't think," Shirley went on, "how such a charming old place came
+to be standing idle."
+
+"Isn't it rather--run down?"
+
+"Not enough to matter--really.  I want father to buy it, and do what is
+needed to it, without making it all new and snug looking.  The sunsets
+from that front lawn are gorgeous, don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes," Pauline agreed, "I haven't been over there in two years.  We
+used to have picnics near there."
+
+"I hope you will again, this summer, and invite father and me.  We
+adore picnics; we've had several since we came--he and I and the dogs.
+The dogs do love picnics so, too."
+
+Pauline had given up wanting to hurry Fanny; what a lot she would have
+to tell her mother when she got home.
+
+She was sorry when a turn in the road brought them within sight of the
+old manor house.  "There's father!" Shirley said, nodding to a figure
+coming towards them across a field.  The dogs were off to meet him
+directly, with shrill barks of pleasure.
+
+"May I get down here, please?" Shirley asked.  "Thank you very much for
+the lift; and I am so glad to have met you and your sister, Miss Shaw.
+You'll both come and see me soon, won't you?"
+
+"We'd love to," Pauline answered heartily; "'cross lots, it's not so
+very far over here from the parsonage, and," she hesitated,
+"you--you'll be seeing Hilary quite often, while she's at The Maples,
+perhaps?"
+
+"I hope so.  Father's on the lookout for a horse and rig for me, and
+then she and I can have some drives together.  She will know where to
+find the prettiest roads."
+
+"Oh, she would enjoy that," Pauline said eagerly, and as she drove on,
+she turned more than once to glance back at the tall, slender figure
+crossing the field.  Shirley seemed to walk as if the mere act of
+walking were in itself a pleasure.  Pauline thought she had never
+before known anyone who appeared so alive from head to foot.
+
+"Go 'long, Fanny!" she commanded; she was in a hurry to get home now,
+with her burden of news.  It seemed to her as if she had been away a
+long while, so much had happened in the meantime.
+
+At the parsonage gate, Pauline found Patience waiting for her.  "You
+have taken your time, Paul Shaw!" the child said, climbing in beside
+her sister.
+
+"Fanny's time, you mean!"
+
+"It hasn't come yet!" Patience said protestingly.  "I went for the mail
+myself this afternoon, so I know!"
+
+"Oh, well, perhaps it will to-morrow," Pauline answered, with so little
+of real concern in her voice, that Patience wondered.  "Suppose you
+take Fanny on to the barn.  Mother's home, isn't she?"
+
+Patience glanced at her sharply.  "You've got something--particular--to
+tell mother!  O Paul, please wait 'til I come.  Is it about--"
+
+"You're getting to look more like an interrogation point every day,
+Impatience!" Pauline told her, getting down from the gig.
+
+Patience sniffed.  "If nobody ever asked questions, nobody'd ever know
+anything!" she declared.
+
+"Is mother home?" Pauline asked again.
+
+"Who's asking things now!"  Patience drew the reins up tightly and
+bouncing up and down on the carriage seat, called sharply--"Hi yi!  Hi
+yi!"
+
+It was the one method that never failed to rouse Fanny's indignation,
+producing, for the moment, the desired effect; still, as Pauline said,
+it was hardly a proceeding that Hilary or she could adopt, or, least of
+all, their father.
+
+As she trotted briskly off to the barn now, the very tilt of Fanny's
+ears expressed injured dignity.  Dignity was Fanny's strong point;
+that, and the ability to cover less ground in an afternoon than any
+other horse in Winton.  The small human being at the other end of those
+taut reins might have known she would have needed no urging barnwards.
+
+"Maybe you don't like it," Patience observed, "but that makes no
+difference--'s long's it's for your good.  You're a very unchristiany
+horse, Fanny Shaw.  And I'll 'hi yi' you every time I get a chance; so
+now go on."
+
+However Patience was indoors in time to hear all but the very beginning
+of Pauline's story of her afternoon's experience.  "I told you," she
+broke in, "that I saw a nice girl at church last Sunday--in Mrs.
+Dobson's pew; and Mrs. Dobson kept looking at her out of the corner of
+her eyes all the tune, 'stead of paying attention to what father was
+saying; and Miranda says, ten to one.  Sally Dobson comes out in--"
+
+"That will do, Patience," her mother said, "if you are going to
+interrupt in this fashion, you must run away."
+
+Patience subsided reluctantly, her blue eyes most expressive.
+
+"Isn't it nice for Hilary, mother?  Now she'll be contented to stay a
+week or two, don't you think?" Pauline said.
+
+"I hope so, dear.  Yes, it is very nice."
+
+"She was looking better already, mother; brighter, you know."
+
+"Mummy, is asking a perfectly necessary question 'interrupting'?'"
+
+"Perhaps not, dear, if there is only one," smiled Mrs. Shaw.
+
+"Mayn't I, please, go with Paul and Hilary when they go to call on that
+girl?"
+
+"On whom, Patience?"
+
+Patience wriggled impatiently; grown people were certainly very trying
+at times.  "On Paul's and Hilary's new friend, mummy."
+
+"Not the first time, Patience; possibly later--"
+
+Patience shrugged.  "By and by," she observed, addressing the room at
+large, "when Paul and Hilary are married, I'll be Miss Shaw!  And
+then--" the thought appeared to give her considerable comfort.
+
+"And maybe, Towser," she confided later, as the two sat together on the
+side porch, "maybe--some day--you and I'll go to call on them on our
+own account.  I'm not sure it isn't your duty to call on those
+dogs--you lived here first, and I can't see why it isn't mine--to call
+on that girl.  Father says, we should always hasten to welcome the
+stranger; and they sound dreadfully interesting."
+
+Towser blinked a sleepy acquiescence.  In spite of his years, he still
+followed blindly where Patience led, though the consequences were
+frequently disastrous.
+
+It was the next afternoon that Pauline, reading in the garden, heard an
+eager little voice calling excitedly, "Paul, where are you!  It's come!
+It's come!  I brought it up from the office myself!"
+
+Pauline sprang up.  "Here I am, Patience!  Hurry!"
+
+"Well, I like that!" Patience said, coming across the lawn.  "Hurry!
+Haven't I run every inch of the way home!"  She waved the letter above
+her head--"'Miss Pauline A.  Shaw!'  It's type-written!  O Paul, aren't
+you going to read it out here!"
+
+For Pauline, catching the letter from her, had run into the house,
+crying--"Mother!  O Mother Shaw!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER
+
+"Mother!  O mother, where are you!" Pauline cried, and on Mrs. Shaw's
+answering from her own room, she ran on up-stairs.  "O Mother Shaw!
+It's come at last!" she announced breathlessly.
+
+"So I thought--when I heard Patience calling just now.  Pauline, dear,
+try not to be too disappointed if--"
+
+"You open it, mother--please!  Now it's really come, I'm--afraid to."
+Pauline held out her letter.
+
+"No, dear, it is addressed to you," Mrs. Shaw answered quietly.
+
+And Pauline, a good deal sobered by the gravity with which her mother
+had received the news, sat down on the wide window seat, near her
+mother's chair, tearing open the envelope.  As she spread out the heavy
+businesslike sheet of paper within, a small folded enclosure fell from
+it into her lap.
+
+"Oh, mother!" Pauline caught up the narrow blue slip.  She had never
+received a check from anyone before.  "Mother! listen!" and she read
+aloud, "'Pay to the order of Miss Pauline A. Shaw, the sum of
+twenty-five dollars.'"
+
+Twenty-five dollars!  One ought to be able to do a good deal with
+twenty-five dollars!
+
+"Goodness me!" Patience exclaimed.  She had followed her sister
+up-stairs, after a discreet interval, curling herself up unobtrusively
+in a big chair just inside the doorway.  "Can you do what you like with
+it, Paul?"
+
+But Pauline was bending over the letter, a bright spot of color on each
+cheek.  Presently, she handed it to her mother.  "I wish--I'd never
+written to him!  Read it, mother!"
+
+And Mrs. Shaw read, as follows--
+
+
+          NEW YORK CITY, May 31, 19--.
+
+_Miss Pauline A. Shaw,
+  Winton, Vt._
+
+MY DEAR NIECE: Yours of May 16th to hand.  I am sorry to learn that
+your sister Hilary appears to be in such poor health at present.  Such
+being the case, however, it would seem to me that home was the best
+place for her.  I do not at all approve of this modern fashion of
+running about the country, on any and every pretext.  Also, if I
+remember correctly, your father has frequently described Winton to me
+as a place of great natural charms, and peculiarly adapted to those
+suffering from so-called nervous disorders.
+
+Altogether, I do not feel inclined to comply with your request to make
+it possible for your sister to leave home, in search of change and
+recreation.  Instead, beginning with this letter, I will forward you
+each month during the summer, the sum of twenty-five dollars, to be
+used in procuring for your sisters and yourself--I understand, there is
+a third child--such simple and healthful diversions as your parents may
+approve, the only conditions I make, being, that at no time shall any
+of your pleasure trips take you further than ten miles from home, and
+that you keep me informed, from time to time, how this plan of mine is
+succeeding.
+
+Trusting this may prove satisfactory,
+
+    Very respectfully,
+        PAUL A. SHAW.
+
+
+"What do you think, mother?" Pauline asked, as Mrs. Shaw finished
+reading.  "Isn't it a very--queer sort of letter?"
+
+"It is an extremely characteristic one, dear."
+
+"I think," Patience could contain herself no longer, "that you are the
+inconsideratest persons!  You know I'm perfectly wild to know what's in
+that letter!"
+
+"Run away now, Patience," her mother said.  "You shall hear about it
+later," and when Patience had obeyed--not very willingly, Mrs. Shaw
+turned again to Pauline.  "We must show this to your father, before
+making any plans in regard to it, dear."
+
+"He's coming now.  You show it to him, please, mother."
+
+When her mother had gone down-stairs, Pauline still sat there in the
+window seat, looking soberly out across the lawn to the village street,
+with its double rows of tall, old trees.  So her flag had served little
+purpose after all!  That change for Hilary was still as uncertain, as
+much a vague part of the future, as it had ever been.
+
+It seemed to the girl, at the moment, as if she fairly hated Winton.
+As though Hilary and she did not already know every stick and stone in
+it, had not long ago exhausted all its possibilities!
+
+New people might think it "quaint" and "pretty" but they had not lived
+here all their lives.  And, besides, she had expressly told Uncle Paul
+that the doctor had said that Hilary needed a change.
+
+She was still brooding over the downfall of her hopes, when her mother
+called to her from the garden.  Pauline went down, feeling that it
+mattered very little what her father's decision had been--it could make
+so little difference to them, either way.
+
+Mrs. Shaw was on the bench under the old elm, that stood midway between
+parsonage and church.  She had been rereading Uncle Paul's letter, and
+to Pauline's wonder, there was something like a smile of amusement in
+her eyes.
+
+"Well, mother?" the girl asked.
+
+"Well, dear, your father and I have talked the matter over, and we have
+decided to allow you to accept your uncle's offer."
+
+"But that--hateful condition!  How is Hilary to get a chance--here in
+Winton?"
+
+"Who was it that I heard saying, only this morning, Pauline, that even
+if Uncle Paul didn't agree, she really believed we might manage to have
+a very pleasant summer here at home?"
+
+"I know--but still, now that we know definitely--"
+
+"We can go to work definitely to do even better."
+
+"But how, mother!"
+
+"That is what we must think over.  Suppose you put your wits to work
+right now.  I must go down to Jane's for a few moments.  After all,
+Pauline, those promised twenty-fives can be used very pleasantly--even
+in Winton."
+
+"But it will still be Winton."
+
+"Winton may develop some unexplored corners, some new outlooks."
+
+Pauline looked rather doubtful; then, catching sight of a small
+dejected-looking little figure in the swing, under the big cherry-tree
+at the foot of the lawn, she asked, "I suppose I may tell Patience now,
+mother?  She really has been very good all this time of waiting."
+
+"She certainly has.  Only, not too many details, Pauline.  Patience is
+of such a confiding disposition."
+
+"Patience," Pauline called, "suppose we go see if there aren't some
+strawberries ripe?"
+
+Patience ran off for a basket.  Strawberries!  As if she didn't know
+they were only a pretext.  Grown people were assuredly very queer--but
+sometimes, it was necessary to humor, their little whims and ways.
+
+"I don't believe they are ripe yet," she said, skipping along beside
+her sister.  "O Paul, is it--nice?"
+
+"Mother thinks so!"
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Maybe I will--after a while.  Hilary isn't to go away."
+
+"Is that what you wrote and asked Uncle Paul?  And didn't you ask for
+us all to go?"
+
+"Certainly not--we're not sick," said Pauline, laughing.
+
+"Miranda says what Hilary needs is a good herb tonic!"
+
+"Miranda doesn't know everything."
+
+"What is Uncle Paul going to do then?"
+
+"Send some money every month--to have good times with at home."
+
+"One of those blue paper things?"
+
+"I suppose so," Pauline laughed.
+
+"And _you_ don't call that _nice_!  Well of all the ungratefullest
+girls!  Is it for us _all_ to have good times with?  Or just Hilary?"
+
+"All of us.  Of course, Hilary must come first."
+
+Patience fairly jumped up and down with excitement.  "When will they
+begin, and what will they be like?  O Paul, just think of the good
+times we've had _without_ any money 't all!  Aren't we the luckiest
+girls!"
+
+They had reached the strawberry-bed and Patience dropped down in the
+grass beside it, her hands clasped around her knees.  "Good times in
+Winton will be a lot better than good times anywhere else.  Winton's
+such a nice sociable place."
+
+Pauline settled herself on the top rail of the fence bordering the
+garden at the back.  Patience's enthusiasm was infectious.  "What sort
+of good times do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Picnics!"
+
+"We have such a lot of picnics--year after year!"
+
+"A nice picnic is always sort of new.  Miranda does put up such
+beautiful lunches.  O Paul, couldn't we afford chocolate layer cake
+_every_ time, now?"
+
+"You goosey!" Pauline laughed again heartily.
+
+"And maybe there'll be an excursion somewhere's, and by'n'by there'll
+be the town fair.  Paul, there's a ripe berry!  And another and--"
+
+"See here, hold on, Impatience!" Pauline protested, as the berries
+disappeared, one after another, down Patience's small throat.
+"Perhaps, if you stop eating them all, we can get enough for mother's
+and father's supper."
+
+"Maybe they went and hurried to get ripe for to-night, so we could
+celebrate," Patience suggested.  "Paul, mayn't I go with you next time
+you go over to The Maples?"
+
+"We'll see what mother says."
+
+"I hate 'we'll see's'!" Patience declared, reaching so far over after a
+particularly tempting berry, that she lost her balance, and fell face
+down among them.
+
+"Oh, dear!" she sighed, as her sister came to her assistance,
+"something always seems to happen clean-apron afternoon!  Paul,
+wouldn't it be a 'good time,' if Miranda would agree not to scold 'bout
+perfectly unavoidable accidents once this whole summer?"
+
+"Who's to do the deciding as to the unavoidableness?" Pauline asked.
+"Come on, Patience, we've got about all the ripe ones, and it must be
+time for you to lay the supper-table."
+
+"Not laying supper-tables would be another good time," Patience
+answered.  "We did get enough, didn't we?  I'll hull them."
+
+"I wonder," Pauline said, more as if speaking to herself, "whether
+maybe mother wouldn't think it good to have Jane in now and then--for
+extra work?  Not supper-tables, young lady."
+
+"Jane would love it.  She likes to work with Miranda--she says
+Miranda's such a nice lady.  Do you think she is, Paul?"
+
+"I'm thinking about other things just now."
+
+"I  don't--There's  mother.  Goodness, Miranda's got the cloth on!"
+And away sped the child.
+
+To Patience's astonishment, nothing was said at supper, either of Uncle
+Paul's letter, or the wonderful things it was to lead to.  Mr. Shaw
+kept his wife engaged with parish subjects and Pauline appeared lost in
+thoughts of her own.  Patience fidgeted as openly as she dared.  Of all
+queer grown-ups--and it looked as though most grown-ups were more or
+less queer--father was certainly the queerest.  Of course, he knew
+about the letter; and how could he go on talking about stupid,
+uninteresting matters--like the Ladies' Aid and the new hymn books?
+
+Even the first strawberries of the season passed unnoticed, as far as
+he was concerned, though Mrs. Shaw gave Patience a little smiling nod,
+in recognition of them.
+
+"Mother," Pauline exclaimed, the moment her father had gone back to his
+study, "I've been thinking--Suppose we get Hilary to pretend--that
+coming home is coming to a _new_ place?  That she is coming to visit
+us?  We'll think up all the interesting things to do, that we can, and
+the pretty places to show her."
+
+"That would be a good plan, Pauline."
+
+"And if she's company, she'll have to have the spare room," Patience
+added.
+
+"Jolly for you, Patience!" Pauline said.  "Only, mother, Hilary doesn't
+like the spare room; she says it's the dreariest room in the house."
+
+"If she's company, she'll have to pretend to like it, it wouldn't be
+good manners not to," Patience observed.  The prospect opening out
+ahead of them seemed full of delightful possibilities.  "I hope Miranda
+catches on to the game, and gives us pound-cake and hot biscuits for
+supper ever so often, and doesn't call me to do things, when I'm busy
+entertaining 'the company.'"
+
+"Mother," Pauline broke in--"do keep quiet.  Impatience--couldn't we do
+the spare room over--there's that twenty-five dollars?  We've planned
+it so often."
+
+"We might make some alterations, dear--at least."
+
+"We'll take stock the first thing to-morrow morning.  I suppose we
+can't really start in before Monday."
+
+"Hardly, seeing that it is Friday night."
+
+They were still talking this new idea over, though Patience had been
+sent to bed, when Mr. Shaw came in from a visit to a sick parishioner.
+"We've got the most beautiful scheme on hand, father," Pauline told
+him, wheeling forward his favorite chair.  She hoped he would sit down
+and talk things over with them, instead of going on to the study; it
+wouldn't be half as nice, if he stayed outside of everything.
+
+"New schemes appear to be rampant these days," Mr. Shaw said, but he
+settled himself comfortably in the big chair, quite as though he meant
+to stay with them.  "What is this particular one?"
+
+He listened, while Pauline explained, really listened, instead of
+merely seeming to.  "It does appear an excellent idea," he said; "but
+why should it be Hilary only, who is to try to see Winton with new eyes
+this summer?  Suppose we were all to do so?"
+
+Pauline clapped her hands softly.  "Then you'll help us?  And we'll all
+pretend.  Maybe Uncle Paul's thought isn't such a bad one, after all."
+
+"Paul always believed in developing the opportunities nearest hand,"
+Mr. Shaw answered.  He stroked the head Towser laid against his knee.
+"Your mother and I will be the gainers--if we keep all our girls at
+home, and still achieve the desired end."
+
+Pauline glanced up quickly.  How could she have thought him
+unheeding--indifferent?
+
+"Somehow, I think it will work out all right," she said.  "Anyhow,
+we're going to try it, aren't we.  Mother Shaw?  Patience thinks it the
+best idea ever, there'll be no urging needed there."
+
+Pauline went up to bed that night feeling strangely happy.  For one
+thing the uncertainty was over, and if they set to work to make this
+summer full of interest, to break up the monotony and routine that
+Hilary found so irksome, the result must be satisfactory.  And lastly,
+there was the comforting conviction, that whatever displeasure her
+father had felt at first, at her taking the law into her own hands in
+such unforeseen fashion, had disappeared now; and he was not going to
+stay "outside of things," that was sure.
+
+The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Pauline ran up-stairs
+to the spare room.  She threw open the shutters of the four windows,
+letting in the fresh morning air.  The side windows faced west, and
+looked out across the pleasant tree-shaded yard to the church; those at
+the front faced south, overlooking the broad village street.
+
+In the bright sunlight, the big square room stood forth in all its prim
+orderliness.  "It is ugly," Pauline decided, shaking her head
+disapprovingly, but it had possibilities.  No room, with four such
+generous windows and--for the fire-board must come out--such a wide
+deep fireplace, could be without them.
+
+She turned, as her mother came in, duly attended by Patience.  "It is
+hideous, isn't it, mother?  The paper, I mean--and the carpet isn't
+much better.  It did very well, I suppose, for the visiting
+ministers--probably they're too busy thinking over their sermons to
+notice--but for Hilary--"
+
+Mrs. Shaw smiled.  "Perhaps you are right, dear.  As to the
+unattractiveness of the paper--"
+
+"We must repaper--that's sure; plain green, with a little touch of
+color in the border, and, oh, Mother Shaw, wouldn't a green and white
+matting be lovely?"
+
+"And expensive, Pauline."
+
+"It wouldn't take all the twenty-five, I'm sure.  Miranda'll do the
+papering, I know.  She did the study last year.  Mother, couldn't we
+have Jane in for the washing and ironing this week, and let Miranda get
+right at this room?  I'll help with the ironing, too."
+
+"I suppose so, dear.  Miranda is rather fussy about letting other
+people do her regular work, you know."
+
+"I'll ask her."
+
+"And remember, Pauline, each day is going to bring new demands--don't
+put all your eggs into one basket."
+
+"I won't.  We needn't spend anything on this room except for the paper
+and matting."
+
+Half an hour later, Pauline was on her way down to the village store
+for samples of paper.  She had already settled the matter with Miranda,
+over the wiping of the breakfast dishes.
+
+Miranda had lived with the Shaws ever since Pauline was a baby, and was
+a very important member of the family, both in her own and their
+opinion.  She was tall and gaunt, and somewhat severe looking; however,
+in her case, looks were deceptive.  It would never have occurred to
+Miranda that the Shaws' interests were not her interests--she
+considered herself an important factor in the upbringing of the three
+young people.  If she had a favorite, it was probably Hilary.
+
+"Hmn," she said, when Pauline broached the subject of the spare room,
+"what put that notion in your head, I'd like to know!  That paper ain't
+got a tear in it!"
+
+So Pauline went further, telling her something of Uncle Paul's letter
+and how they hoped to carry his suggestion out.
+
+Miranda stood still, her hands in the dish water--"That's your pa's own
+brother, ain't it?"
+
+Pauline nodded.  "And Miranda--"
+
+"I reckon he ain't much like the minister.  Well, me an' Sarah Jane
+ain't the least bit alike--if we are sisters.  I guess I can manage
+'bout the papering.  But it does go 'gainst me, having that sexton
+woman in.  Still, I reckon you can't be content, 'till we get started.
+Looking for the old gentleman up, later, be you?"
+
+"For whom?" Pauline asked.
+
+"Your pa's brother.  The minister's getting on, and the other one's
+considerable older, I understand."
+
+"I don't think he will be up," Pauline answered; she hadn't thought of
+that before.  Suppose he should come!  She wondered what he would be
+like.
+
+Half way down the street, Pauline was overtaken by her younger sister.
+"Are you going to get the new things now, Paul?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Of course not, just get some samples."
+
+"There's always such a lot of getting ready first," Patience sighed.
+"Paul, mother says I may go with you to-morrow afternoon."
+
+"All right," Pauline agreed.  "Only, you've got to promise not to 'hi
+yi' at Fanny all the way."
+
+"I won't--all the way."
+
+"And--Impatience?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You needn't say what we want the new paper for, or anything about what
+we are planning to do--in the store I mean."
+
+"Mr. Ward would be mighty interested."
+
+"I dare say."
+
+"Miranda says you're beginning to put on considerable airs, since
+you've been turning your hair up, Paul Shaw.  When I put my hair up,
+I'm going on being just as nice and friendly with folks, as before,
+you'll see."
+
+Pauline laughed, which was not at all to Patience's liking.  "All the
+same, mind what I say," she warned.
+
+"Can I help choose?" Patience asked, as they reached the store.
+
+"If you like."  Pauline went through to the little annex devoted to
+wall papers and carpetings.  It was rather musty and dull in there,
+Patience thought; she would have liked to make a slow round of the
+whole store, exchanging greetings and various confidences with the
+other occupants.  The store was a busy place on Saturday morning, and
+Patience knew every man, woman and child in Winton.
+
+They had got their samples and Pauline was lingering before a new line
+of summer dressgoods just received, when the young fellow in charge of
+the post-office and telegraph station called to her: "I say, Miss Shaw,
+here's a message just come for you."
+
+"For me--"  Pauline took it wonderingly.  Her hands were trembling, she
+had never received a telegram before--Was Hilary?  Then she laughed at
+herself.  To have sent a message, Mr. Boyd would have first been
+obliged to come in to Winton.
+
+Out on the sidewalk, she tore open the envelope, not heeding Patience's
+curious demands.  It was from her uncle, and read--
+
+"Have some one meet the afternoon train Saturday, am sending you an aid
+towards your summer's outings."
+
+"Oh," Pauline said, "do hurry, Patience.  I want to get home as fast as
+I can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BEGINNINGS
+
+Sunday afternoon, Pauline and Patience drove over to The Maples to see
+Hilary.  They stopped, as they went by, at the postoffice for Pauline
+to mail a letter to her uncle, which was something in the nature of a
+very enthusiastic postscript to the one she had written him Friday
+night, acknowledging and thanking him for his cheque, and telling him
+of the plans already under discussion.
+
+"And now," Patience said, as they turned out of the wide main street,
+"we're really off.  I reckon Hilary'll be looking for us, don't you?"
+
+"I presume she will," Pauline answered.
+
+"Maybe she'll want to come back with us."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe so.  She knows mother wants her to stay the week
+out.  Listen, Patty--"
+
+Patience sat up and took notice.  When people Pattied her, it generally
+meant they had a favor to ask, or something of the sort.
+
+"Remember, you're to be very careful not to let Hilary
+suspect--anything."
+
+"About the room and--?"
+
+"I mean--everything."
+
+"Won't she like it--all, when she does know?"
+
+"Well, rather!"
+
+Patience wriggled excitedly.  "It's like having a fairy godmother,
+isn't it?  And three wishes?  If you'd had three wishes, Paul, wouldn't
+you've chosen--"
+
+"You'd better begin quieting down, Patience, or Hilary can't help
+suspecting something."
+
+Patience drew a long breath.  "If she knew--she wouldn't stay a single
+day longer, would she?"
+
+"That's one reason why she mustn't know."
+
+"When will you tell her; or is mother going to?"
+
+"I don't know yet.  See here, Patience, you may drive--if you won't hi
+yi."
+
+"Please, Paul, let me, when we get to the avenue.  It's stupid coming
+to a place, like Fanny'd gone to sleep."
+
+"Not before--and only once then," Pauline stipulated, and Patience
+possessed her soul in at least a faint semblance of patience until they
+turned into the avenue of maples.  Then she suddenly tightened her hold
+on the reins, bounced excitedly up and down, crying sharply--"Hi yi!"
+
+Fanny instantly pricked up her ears, and, what was more to the purpose,
+actually started into what might almost have been called a trot.
+"There! you see!" Patience said proudly, as they turned into the yard.
+
+Hilary came down the porch steps.  "I heard Impatience urging her
+Rosinante on," she laughed.  "Why didn't you let her drive all the way,
+Paul?  I've been watching for you since dinner."
+
+"We've been pretty nearly since dinner getting here, it seems to me,"
+Patience declared.  "We had to wait for Paul to write a letter first
+to--"
+
+"Are you alone?" Pauline broke in hurriedly, asking the first question
+that came into her mind.
+
+Hilary smiled ruefully.  "Not exactly.  Mr. Boyd's asleep in the
+sitting-room, and Mrs. Boyd's taking a nap up-stairs in her own room."
+
+"You poor child!" Pauline said.  "Jump out, Patience!"
+
+"_Have_ you brought me something to read?  I've finished both the books
+I brought with me, and gone through a lot of magazines--queer old
+things, that Mrs. Boyd took years and years ago."
+
+"Then you've done very wrong," Pauline told her severely, leading Fanny
+over to a shady spot at one side of the yard and tying her to the
+fence--a quite unnecessary act, as nothing would have induced Fanny to
+take her departure unsolicited.
+
+"Guess!"  Pauline came back, carrying a small paper-covered parcel.
+"Father sent it to you.  He was over at Vergennes yesterday."
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, taking it eagerly and sitting down on the steps.
+"It's a book, of course."  Even more than her sisters, she had
+inherited her father's love of books, and a new book was an event at
+the parsonage.  "Oh," she cried again, taking off the paper and
+disclosing the pretty tartan cover within, "O Paul!  It's 'Penelope's
+Progress.'  Don't you remember those bits we read in those odd
+magazines Josie lent us?  And how we wanted to read it all?"
+
+Pauline nodded.  "I reckon mother told father about it; I saw her
+following him out to the gig yesterday morning."
+
+They went around to the little porch leading from Hilary's room, always
+a pleasant spot in the afternoons.
+
+"Why," Patience exclaimed, "it's like an out-door parlor, isn't it?"
+
+There was a big braided mat on the floor of the porch, its colors
+rather faded by time and use, but looking none the worse for that, a
+couple of rockers, a low stool, and a small table, covered with a bit
+of bright cretonne.  On it stood a blue and white pitcher filled with
+field flowers, beside it lay one or two magazines.  Just outside,
+extending from one of the porch posts to the limb of an old cherry
+tree, hung Hilary's hammock, gay with cushions.
+
+"Shirley did it yesterday afternoon," Hilary explained.  "She was over
+here a good while.  Mrs. Boyd let us have the things and the chintz for
+the cushions, Shirley made them, and we filled them with hay."
+
+Pauline, sitting on the edge of the low porch, looked about her with
+appreciative eyes.  "How pleasant and cozy it is, and after all, it
+only took a little time and trouble."
+
+Hilary laid her new book on the table.  "How soon do you suppose we can
+go over to the manor, Paul?  I imagine the Dayres have fixed it up
+mighty pretty.  Mr. Dayre was over here, last night.  He and Shirley
+are ever so--chummy.  He's Shirley Putnam Dayre, and she's Shirley
+Putnam Dayre, Junior.  So he calls her 'Junior' and she calls him
+'Senior.'  They're just like brother and sister.  He's an artist,
+they've been everywhere together.  And, Paul, they think Winton is
+delightful.  Mr. Dayre says the village street, with its great
+overhanging trees, and old-fashioned houses, is a picture in itself,
+particularly up at our end, with the church, all ivy-covered.  He means
+to paint the church sometime this summer."
+
+"It would make a pretty picture," Pauline said thoughtfully.  "Hilary,
+I wonder--"
+
+"So do I," Hilary said.  "Still, after all, one would like to see
+different places--"
+
+"And love only one," Pauline added; she turned to her sister.  "You are
+better, aren't you--already?"
+
+"I surely am.  Shirley's promised to take me out on the lake soon.
+She's going to be friends with us, Paul--really friends.  She says we
+must call her 'Shirley,' that she doesn't like 'Miss Dayre,' she hears
+it so seldom."
+
+"I think it's nice--being called 'Miss,'" Patience remarked, from where
+she had curled herself up in the hammock.  "I suppose she doesn't want
+it, because she can have it--I'd love to be called 'Miss Shaw.'"
+
+"Hilary," Pauline said, "would you mind very much, if you couldn't go
+away this summer?"
+
+"It wouldn't do much good if I did, would it?"
+
+"The not minding would--to mother and the rest of us--"
+
+"And if you knew what--" Patience began excitedly.
+
+"Don't you want to go find Captain, Impatience?" Pauline asked hastily,
+and Patience, feeling that she had made a false move, went with most
+unusual meekness.
+
+"Know what?" Hilary asked.
+
+"I--shouldn't wonder, if the child had some sort of scheme on hand,"
+Pauline said, she hoped she wasn't--prevaricating; after all, Patience
+probably did have some scheme in her head--she usually had.
+
+"I haven't thought much about going away the last day or so," Hilary
+said.  "I suppose it's the feeling better, and, then, the getting to
+know Shirley."
+
+"I'm glad of that."  Pauline sat silent for some moments; she was
+watching a fat bumble bee buzzing in and out among the flowers in the
+garden.  It was always still, over here at the farm, but to-day, it
+seemed a different sort of stillness, as if bees and birds and flowers
+knew that it was Sunday afternoon.
+
+"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you smiling to yourself about?"
+
+"Was I smiling?  I didn't know it.  I guess because it is so nice and
+peaceful here and because--Hilary, let's start a club--the 'S. W. F.
+Club.'"
+
+"The what?"
+
+"The 'S. W. F. Club.'  No, I shan't tell you what the letters stand
+for!  You've got to think it out for yourself."
+
+"A real club, Paul?"
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+"Who's to belong?"
+
+"Oh, lots of folks.  Josie and Tom, and you and I--and I think, maybe,
+mother and father."
+
+"Father!  To belong to a club!"
+
+"It was he who put the idea into my head."
+
+Hilary came to sit beside her sister on the step.  "Paul, I've a
+feeling that there is something--up!  And it isn't the barometer!"
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+"From you."
+
+Pauline sprang up.  "Feelings are very unreliable things to go by, but
+I've one just now--that if we don't hunt Impatience up pretty
+quick--there will be something doing."
+
+They found Patience sitting on the barn floor, utterly regardless of
+her white frock.  A whole family of kittens were about her.
+
+"Aren't they dears!" Patience demanded.
+
+"Mrs. Boyd says I may have my choice, to take home with me," Hilary
+said.  The parsonage cat had died the fall before, and had had no
+successor as yet.
+
+Patience held up a small coal-black one.  "Choose this, Hilary!
+Miranda says a black cat brings luck, though it don't look like we
+needed any black cats to bring--"
+
+"I like the black and white one," Pauline interposed, just touching
+Patience with the tip of her shoe.
+
+"Maybe Mrs. Boyd would give us each one, that would leave one for her,"
+Patience suggested cheerfully.
+
+"I imagine mother would have something to say to that," Pauline told
+her.  "Was Josie over yesterday, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary nodded.  "In the morning."
+
+As they were going back to the house, they met Mr. Boyd, on his way to
+pay his regular weekly visit to the far pasture.
+
+"Going to salt the colts?" Patience asked.  "Please, mayn't I come?"
+
+"There won't be time, Patience," Pauline said.
+
+"Not time!" Mr. Boyd objected, "I'll be back to supper, and you girls
+are going to stay to supper."  He carried Patience off with him,
+declaring that he wasn't sure he should let her go home at all, he
+meant to keep her altogether some day, and why not to-night?
+
+"Oh, I couldn't stay to-night," the child assured him earnestly.  "Of
+course, I couldn't ever stay for always, but by'n'by, when--there isn't
+so much going on at home--there's such a lot of things keep happening
+at home now, only don't tell Hilary, please--maybe, I could come make
+you a truly visit."
+
+Indoors, Pauline and Hilary found Mrs. Boyd down-stairs again from her
+nap.  "You ain't come after Hilary?" she questioned anxiously.
+
+"Only to see her," Pauline answered, and while she helped Mrs. Boyd get
+supper, she confided to her the story of Uncle Paul's letter and the
+plans already under way.
+
+Mrs. Boyd was much interested.  "Bless me, it'll do her a heap of good,
+you'll see, my dear.  I'm not sure, I don't agree with your uncle, when
+all's said and done, home's the best place for young folks."
+
+Just before Pauline and Patience went home that evening, Mrs. Boyd
+beckoned Pauline mysteriously into the best parlor.  "I always meant
+her to have them some day--she being my god-child--and maybe they'll do
+her as much good now, as any time, she'll want to fix up a bit now and
+then, most likely.  Shirley had on a string of them last night, but not
+to compare with these."  Mrs. Boyd was kneeling before a trunk in the
+parlor closet, and presently she put a little square shell box into
+Pauline's bands.  "Box and all, just like they came to me--you know,
+they were my grandmother's--but Hilary's a real careful sort of girl."
+
+"But, Mrs. Boyd--I'm not sure that mother would--"  Pauline knew quite
+well what was in the box.
+
+"That's all right!  You just slip them in Hilary's top drawer, where
+she'll come across them without expecting it.  Deary me, I never wear
+them, and as I say, I've always meant to give them to her some day."
+
+"She'll be perfectly delighted--and they'll look so pretty.  Hilary's
+got a mighty pretty neck, I think."  Pauline went out to the gig, the
+little box hidden carefully in her blouse, feeling that Patience was
+right and that these were very fairy-story sort of days.
+
+"You'll be over again soon, won't you?" Hilary urged.
+
+"We're going to be tre-men-dous-ly busy," Patience began, but her
+sister cut her short.
+
+"As soon as I can, Hilary.  Mind you go on getting better."
+
+
+By Monday noon, the spare room had lost its look of prim order.  In the
+afternoon, Pauline and her mother went down to the store to buy the
+matting.  There was not much choice to be had, and the only green and
+white there was, was considerably beyond the limit they had allowed
+themselves.
+
+"Never mind," Pauline said cheerfully, "plain white will look ever so
+cool and pretty--perhaps, the green would fade.  I'm going to believe
+so."
+
+Over a low wicker sewing-chair, she did linger longingly; it would look
+so nice beside one of the west windows.  She meant to place a low table
+for books and work between those side windows.  In the end, prudence
+won the day, and surely, the new paper and matting were enough to be
+grateful for in themselves.
+
+By the next afternoon the paper was on and the matting down.  Pauline
+was up garret rummaging, when she heard someone calling her from the
+foot of the stairs.  "I'm here, Josie," she called back, and her friend
+came running up.
+
+"What are you doing?" she asked.
+
+Pauline held up an armful of old-fashioned chintz.
+
+"Oh, how pretty!" Josie exclaimed.  "It makes one think of high-waisted
+dresses, and minuets and things like that."
+
+Pauline laughed.  "They were my great-grandmother's bed curtains."
+
+"Goodness!  What are you going to do with them?"
+
+"I'm not sure mother will let me do anything.  I came across them just
+now in looking for some green silk she said I might have to cover
+Hilary's pin-cushion with."
+
+"For the new room?  Patience has been doing the honors of the new paper
+and matting--it's going to be lovely, I think."
+
+Pauline scrambled to her feet, shaking out the chintz: "If only mother
+would--it's pink and green--let's go ask her."
+
+"What do you want to do with it, Pauline?" Mrs. Shaw asked.
+
+"I haven't thought that far--use it for draperies of some kind, I
+suppose," the girl answered.
+
+They were standing in the middle of the big, empty room.  Suddenly,
+Josie gave a quick exclamation, pointing to the bare corner between the
+front and side windows.  "Wouldn't a cozy corner be delightful--with
+cover and cushions of the chintz?"
+
+"May we, mother?" Pauline begged in a coaxing tone.
+
+"I suppose so, dear--only where is the bench part to come from?"
+
+"Tom'll make the frame for it, I'll go get him this minute," Josie
+answered.
+
+"And you might use that single mattress from up garret," Mrs. Shaw
+suggested.
+
+Pauline ran up to inspect it, and to see what other treasures might be
+forthcoming.  The garret was a big, shadowy place, extending over the
+whole house, and was lumber room, play place and general refuge, all in
+one.
+
+Presently, from under the eaves, she drew forward a little
+old-fashioned sewing-chair, discarded on the giving out of its cane
+seat.  "But I could tack a piece of burlap on and cover it with a
+cushion," Pauline decided, and bore it down in triumph to the new room,
+where Tom Brice was already making his measurements for the cozy corner.
+
+Josie was on the floor, measuring for the cover.  "Isn't it fun, Paul?
+Tom says it won't take long to do his part."
+
+Tom straightened himself, slipping his rule into his pocket.  "I don't
+see what you want it for, though," he said.
+
+"'Yours not to reason why--'" Pauline told him.  "We see, and so will
+Hilary.  Don't you and Josie want to join the new club--the 'S. W. F.
+Club'?"
+
+"Society of Willing Females, I suppose?" Tom remarked.
+
+"It sounds like some sort of sewing circle," Josie said.
+
+Pauline sat down in one of the wide window places.  "I'm not sure it
+might not take in both.  It is--'The Seeing Winton First Club.'"
+
+Josie looked as though she didn't quite understand, but Tom whistled
+softly.  "What else have you been doing for the past fifteen years, if
+you please, ma'am?" he asked quizzically.
+
+Pauline laughed.  "One ought to know a place rather thoroughly in
+fifteen years, I suppose; but--I'm hoping we can make it seem at least
+a little bit new and different this summer--for Hilary.  You see, we
+shan't be able to send her away, and so, I thought, perhaps, if we
+tried looking at Winton--with new eyes--"
+
+"I see," Josie cried.  "I think it's a splendiferous ideal"
+
+"And, I thought, if we formed a sort of club among ourselves and worked
+together--"
+
+"Listen," Josie interrupted again, "we'll make it a condition of
+membership, that each one must, in turn, think up something pleasant to
+do."
+
+"Is the membership to be limited?" Tom asked.
+
+Pauline smiled.  "It will be so--necessarily--won't it?"  For Winton
+was not rich in young people.
+
+"There will be enough of us," Josie declared hopefully.
+
+"Like the model dinner party?" her brother asked.  "Not less than the
+Graces, nor more than the Muses."
+
+And so the new club was formed then and there.  There were to be no
+regular and formal meetings, no dues, nor fines, and each member was to
+consider himself, or herself, an active member of the programme
+committee.
+
+Tom, as the oldest member of their immediate circle of friends, was
+chosen president before that first meeting adjourned; no other officers
+were considered necessary at the time.  And being president, to him was
+promptly delegated the honor--despite his vigorous protests--of
+arranging for their first outing and notifying the other members--yet
+to be.
+
+"But," he expostulated, "what's a fellow to think up--in a hole like
+this?"
+
+"Winton isn't a hole!" his sister protested.  It was one of the chief
+occupations of Josie's life at present, to contradict all such
+heretical utterances on Tom's part.  He was to go away that fall to
+commence his studies for the medical profession, for it was Dr. Brice's
+great desire that, later, his son should assist him in his practice.
+But, so far, Tom though wanting to follow his father's profession, was
+firm in his determination, not to follow it in Winton.
+
+"And remember," Pauline said, as the three went down-stairs together,
+"that it's the first step that counts--and to think up something very
+delightful, Tom."
+
+"It mustn't be a picnic, I suppose?  Hilary won't be up to picnics yet
+awhile."
+
+"N-no, and we want to begin soon.  She'll be back Friday, I think,"
+Pauline answered.
+
+By Wednesday night the spare room was ready for the expected guest.
+"It's as if someone had waved a fairy wand over it, isn't it?" Patience
+said delightedly.  "Hilary'll be so surprised."
+
+"I think she will and--pleased."  Pauline gave one of the cushions in
+the cozy corner a straightening touch, and drew the window
+shades--Miranda had taken them down and turned them--a little lower.
+
+"It's a regular company room, isn't it?" Patience said joyously.
+
+The minister drove over to The Maples himself on Friday afternoon to
+bring Hilary home.
+
+"Remember," Patience pointed a warning forefinger at him, just as he
+was starting, "not a single solitary hint!"
+
+"Not a single solitary one," he promised.
+
+As he turned out of the gate.  Patience drew a long breath.  "Well,
+he's off at last!  But, oh, dear, however can we wait 'til he gets
+back?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BEDELIA
+
+It was five o'clock that afternoon when Patience, perched, a little
+white-clad sentry, on the gate-post, announced joyously--"They're
+coming!  They're coming!"
+
+Patience was as excited as if the expected "guest" were one in fact, as
+well as name.  It was fun to be playing a game of make-believe, in
+which the elders took part.
+
+As the gig drew up before the steps, Hilary looked eagerly out.  "Will
+you tell me," she demanded, "why father insisted on coming 'round the
+lower road, by the depot--he didn't stop, and he didn't get any parcel?
+And when I asked him, he just laughed and looked mysterious."
+
+"He went," Pauline answered, "because we asked him to--company usually
+comes by train--real out-of-town company, you know."
+
+"Like visiting ministers and returned missionaries," Patience explained.
+
+Hilary looked thoroughly bewildered.  "But are you expecting company?
+You must be," she glanced from one to another, "you're all dressed up,"
+
+"We were expecting some, dear," her mother told her, "but she has
+arrived."
+
+"Don't you see?  You're it!" Patience danced excitedly about her sister.
+
+"I'm the company!" Hilary said wonderingly.  Then her eyes lighted up.
+"I understand!  How perfectly dear of you all."
+
+Mrs. Shaw patted the hand Hilary slipped into hers.  "You have come
+back a good deal better than you went, my dear.  The change has done
+you good."
+
+"And it didn't turn out a stupid--half-way affair, after all," Hilary
+declared.  "I've had a lovely time.  Only, I simply had to come home, I
+felt somehow--that--that--"
+
+"We were expecting company?" Pauline laughed.  "And you wanted to be
+here?"
+
+"I reckon that was it," Hilary agreed.  As she sat there, resting a
+moment, before going up-stairs, she hardly seemed the same girl who had
+gone away so reluctantly only eight days before.  The change of scene,
+the outdoor life, the new friendship, bringing with it new interests,
+had worked wonders,
+
+"And now," Pauline suggested, taking up her sister's valise, "perhaps
+you would like to go up to your room--visitors generally do."
+
+"To rest after your journey, you know," Patience prompted.  Patience
+believed in playing one's part down to the minutest detail.
+
+"Thank you," Hilary answered, with quite the proper note of formality
+in her voice, "if you don't mind; though I did not find the trip as
+fatiguing as I had expected."
+
+But from the door, she turned back to give her mother a second and most
+uncompany-like hug.  "It is good to be home, Mother Shaw!  And please,
+you don't want to pack me off again anywhere right away--at least, all
+by myself?"
+
+"Not right away," her mother answered, kissing her.
+
+"I guess you will think it is good to be home, when you
+know--everything," Patience announced, accompanying her sisters
+up-stairs, but on the outside of the banisters.
+
+"Patty!" Pauline protested laughingly--"Was there ever such a child for
+letting things out!"
+
+"I haven't!" the child exclaimed, "only now--it can't make any
+difference."
+
+"There is mystery in the very air!" Hilary insisted.  "Oh, what have
+you all been up to?"
+
+"You're not to go in there!" Patience cried, as Hilary stopped before
+the door of her own and Pauline's room.
+
+"Of course you're not," Pauline told her.  "It strikes me, for
+company--you're making yourself very much at home!  Walking into
+peoples' rooms."  She led the way along the hall to the spare room,
+throwing the door wide open.
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, then stood quite still on the threshold, looking
+about her with wide, wondering eyes.
+
+The spare room was grim and gray no longer.  Hilary felt as if she must
+be in some strange, delightful dream.  The cool green of the wall
+paper, with the soft touch of pink in ceiling and border, the fresh
+white matting, the cozy corner opposite--with its delicate
+old-fashioned chintz drapery and big cushions, the new toilet
+covers--white over green, the fresh curtains at the windows, the
+cushioned window seats, the low table and sewing-chair, even her own
+narrow white bed, with its new ruffled spread, all went to make a room
+as strange to her, as it was charming and unexpected.
+
+"Oh," she said again, turning to her mother, who had followed them
+up-stairs, and stood waiting just outside the door.  "How perfectly
+lovely it all is--but it isn't for me?"
+
+"Of course it is," Patience said.  "Aren't you company--you aren't just
+Hilary now, you're 'Miss Shaw' and you're here on a visit; and there's
+company asked to supper to-morrow night, and it's going to be such fun!"
+
+Hilary's color came and went.  It was something deeper and better than
+fun.  She understood now why they had done this--why Pauline had said
+that--about her not going away; there was a sudden lump in the girl's
+throat--she was glad, so glad, she had said that downstairs----about
+not wanting to go away.
+
+And when her mother and Patience had gone down-stairs again and Pauline
+had begun to unpack the valise, as she had unpacked it a week ago at
+The Maples, Hilary sat in the low chair by one of the west windows, her
+hands folded in her lap, looking about this new room of hers.
+
+"There," Pauline said presently, "I believe that's all now--you'd
+better lie down, Hilary--I'm afraid you're tired."
+
+"No, I'm not; at any rate, not very.  I'll lie down if you like, only I
+know I shan't be able to sleep."
+
+Pauline lowered the pillow and threw a light cover over her.  "There's
+something in the top drawer of the dresser," she said, "but you're not
+to look at it until you've lain down at least half an hour."
+
+"I feel as if I were in an enchanted palace,", Hilary said, "with so
+many delightful surprises being sprung on me all the while." After
+Pauline had gone, she lay watching the slight swaying of the wild roses
+in the tall jar on the hearth.  The wild roses ran rampant in the
+little lane leading from the back of the church down past the old
+cottage where Sextoness Jane lived.  Jane had brought these with her
+that morning, as her contribution to the new room.
+
+To Hilary, as to Patience, it seemed as if a magic wand had been waved,
+transforming the old dull room into a place for a girl to live and
+dream in.  But for her, the name of the wand was Love.
+
+There must be no more impatient longings, no fretful repinings, she
+told herself now.  She must not be slow to play her part in this new
+game that had been originated all for her.
+
+The half-hour up, she slipped from the bed and began unbuttoning her
+blue-print frock.  Being company, it stood to reason she must dress for
+supper.  But first, she must find out what was in the upper drawer.
+
+The first glimpse of the little shell box, told her that.  There were
+tears in Hilary's gray eyes, as she stood slipping the gold beads
+slowly through her fingers.  How good everyone was to her; for the
+first time some understanding of the bright side even of sickness--and
+she had not been really sick, only run-down--and, yes, she had been
+cross and horrid, lots of times--came to her.
+
+"I'll go over just as soon as I can and thank her," the girl thought,
+clasping the beads about her neck, "and I'll keep them always and
+always."
+
+A little later, she came down-stairs all in white, a spray of the pink
+and white wild roses in her belt, her soft, fair hair freshly brushed
+and braided.  She had been rather neglectful of her hair lately.
+
+There was no one on the front piazza but her father, and he looked up
+from his book with a smile of pleasure.  "My dear, how well you are
+looking!  It is certainly good to see you at home again, and quite your
+old self."
+
+Hilary came to sit on the arm of his chair.  "It is good to be at home
+again.  I suppose you know all the wonderful surprises I found waiting
+me?"
+
+"Supper's ready," Patience proclaimed from the doorway.  "Please come,
+because--" she caught herself up, putting a hand into Hilary's, "I'll
+show you where to sit, Miss Shaw."
+
+Hilary laughed.  "How old are you, my dear?" she asked, in the tone
+frequently used by visiting ministers.
+
+"I'm a good deal older than I'm treated generally," Patience answered.
+"Do you like Winton?"
+
+"I am sure I shall like it very much."  Hilary slipped into the chair
+Patience drew forward politely.  "The company side of the table--sure
+enough," she laughed.
+
+"It isn't proper to say things to yourself sort of low down in your
+voice," Patience reproved her, then at a warning glance from her mother
+subsided into silence as the minister took his place.
+
+For to-night, at least, Miranda had amply fulfilled Patience's hopes,
+as to company suppers.  And she, too, played her part in the new game,
+calling Hilary "Miss," and never by any chance intimating that she had
+seen her before.
+
+"Did you go over to the manor to see Shirley?" Patience asked.
+
+Hilary shook her head.  "I promised her Pauline and I would be over
+soon.  We may have Fanny some afternoon, mayn't we, father?"
+
+Patience's blue eyes danced.  "They can't have Fanny, can they,
+father?" she nodded at him knowingly.
+
+Hilary eyed her questioningly.  "What is the matter, Patience?"
+
+"Nothing is the matter with her," Pauline said hurriedly.  "Don't pay
+any attention to her."
+
+"Only, if you would hurry," Patience implored.  "I--I can't wait much
+longer!"
+
+"Wait!" Hilary asked.  "For what?"
+
+Patience pushed back her chair.  "For--Well, if you just knew what for,
+Hilary Shaw, you'd do some pretty tall hustling!"
+
+"Patience!" her father said reprovingly.
+
+"May I be excused, mother?" Patience asked.  "I'll wait out on the
+porch."
+
+And Mrs. Shaw replied most willingly that she might.
+
+"Is there anything more--to see, I mean, not to eat?" Hilary asked.  "I
+don't see how there can be."
+
+"Are you through?" Pauline answered.  "Because, if you are, I'll show
+you."
+
+"It was sent to Paul," Patience called, from the hall door.  "But she
+says, of course, it was meant for us all; and I think, myself, she's
+right about that."
+
+"Is it--alive?" Hilary asked.
+
+"'It' was--before supper," Pauline told her.  "I certainly hope nothing
+has happened to--'it' since then."
+
+"A dog?" Hilary suggested.
+
+"Wait and see; by the way, where's that kitten?"
+
+"She's to follow in a few days; she was a bit too young to leave home
+just yet."
+
+"I've got the sugar!" Patience called.
+
+Hilary stopped short at the foot of the porch steps.  Patience's
+remark, if it had not absolutely let the cat out of the bag, had at
+least opened the bag.  "Paul, it can't be--"
+
+"In the Shaw's dictionary, at present, there doesn't appear to be any
+such word as can't," Pauline declared.  "Come on---after all, you know,
+the only way to find out--is to find out."
+
+Patience had danced on ahead down the path to the barn.  She stood
+waiting for them now in the broad open doorway, her whole small person
+one animated exclamation point, while Towser, just home from a
+leisurely round of afternoon visits, came forward to meet Hilary,
+wagging a dignified welcome.
+
+"If you don't hurry, I'll 'hi yi' you, like I do Fanny!" Patience
+warned them.  She moved to one side, to let Hilary go on into the barn.
+"Now!" she demanded, "isn't that something more?"
+
+From the stall beside Fanny's, a horse's head reached inquiringly out
+for the sugar with which already she had come to associate the frequent
+visits of these new friends.  She was a pretty, well-made, little mare,
+light sorrel, with white markings, and with a slender, intelligent face.
+
+Hilary stood motionless, too surprised to speak.
+
+"Her name's Bedelia," Patience said, doing the honors.  "She's very
+clever, she knows us all already.  Fanny hasn't been very polite to
+her, and she knows it--Bedelia does, I mean--sometimes, when Fanny
+isn't looking, I've caught Bedelia sort of laughing at her--and I don't
+blame her one bit.  And, oh, Hilary, she can go--there's no need to 'hi
+yi' her."
+
+"But--" Hilary turned to Pauline.
+
+"Uncle Paul sent her," Pauline explained.  "She came last Saturday
+afternoon.  One of the men from Uncle Paul's place in the country
+brought her.  She was born and bred at River Lawn--that's Uncle Paul's
+place--he says."
+
+Hilary stroked the glossy neck gently, if Pauline had said the Sultan
+of Turkey, instead of Uncle Paul, she could hardly have been more
+surprised.  "Uncle Paul--sent her to you!" she said slowly.
+
+"To _us_."
+
+"Bless me, that isn't all he sent," Patience exclaimed.  It seemed to
+Patience that they never would get to the end of their story.  "You
+just come look at this, Hilary Shaw!" she ran on through the opening
+connecting carriage-house with stable.
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, following with Pauline.
+
+Beside the minister's shabby old gig, stood the smartest of smart
+traps, and hanging on the wall behind it, a pretty russet harness, with
+silver mountings.
+
+Hilary sat down on an old saw horse; she felt again as though she must
+be dreaming.
+
+"There isn't another such cute rig in town, Jim says so," Patience
+said.  Jim was the stable boy.  "It beats Bell Ward's all to pieces."
+
+"But why--I mean, how did Uncle Paul ever come to send it to us?"
+Hilary said.  Of course one had always known that there
+was--somewhere--a person named Uncle Paul; but he had appeared about as
+remote and indefinite a being as--that same Sultan of Turkey, for
+instance.
+
+"After all, why shouldn't he?" Pauline answered.
+
+"But I don't believe he would've if Paul had not written to him that
+time," Patience added.  "Maybe next time I tell you anything, you'll
+believe me, Hilary Shaw."
+
+But Hilary was staring at Pauline.  "You didn't write to Uncle Paul?"
+
+"I'm afraid I did."
+
+"Was--was that the letter--you remember, that afternoon?"
+
+"I rather think I do remember."
+
+"Paul, how did you ever dare?"
+
+"I was in the mood to dare anything that day."
+
+"And did he answer; but of course he did."
+
+"Yes--he answered.  Though not right away."
+
+"Was it a nice letter?  Did he mind your having written?  Paul, you
+didn't ask him to send you--these," Hilary waved her hand rather
+vaguely.
+
+"Hardly--he did that all on his own.  It wasn't a bad sort of letter,
+I'll tell you about it by and by.  We can go to the manor in style now,
+can't we--even if father can't spare Fanny.  Bedelia's perfectly
+gentle, I've driven her a little ways once or twice, to make sure.
+Father insisted on going with me.  We created quite a sensation down
+street, I assure you."
+
+"And Mrs. Dane said," Patience cut in, "that in her young days,
+clergymen didn't go kiting 'bout the country in such high-fangled rigs."
+
+"Never mind what Mrs. Dane said, or didn't say," Pauline told her.
+
+"Miranda says, what Mrs. Dane hasn't got to say on any subject,
+wouldn't make you tired listening to it."
+
+"Patience, if you don't stop repeating what everyone says, I shall--"
+
+"If you speak to mother--then you'll be repeating," Patience declared.
+"Maybe, I oughtn't to have said those things before--company."
+
+"I think we'd better go back to the house now," Pauline suggested.
+
+"Sextoness Jane says," Patience remarked, "that she'd have sure admired
+to have a horse and rig like that, when she was a girl.  She says, she
+doesn't suppose you'll be passing by her house very often."
+
+"And, now, please," Hilary pleaded, when she had been established in
+her hammock on the side porch, with her mother in her chair close by,
+and Pauline sitting on the steps, "I want to hear--everything.  I'm
+what Miranda calls 'fair mazed.'"
+
+So Pauline told nearly everything, blurring some of the details a
+little and getting to that twenty-five dollars a month, with which they
+were to do so much, as quickly as possible.
+
+"O Paul, really," Hilary sat up among her cushions--"Why, it'll
+be--riches, won't it?"
+
+"It seems so."
+
+"But--Oh, I'm afraid you've spent all the first twenty-five on me; and
+that's not a fair division--is it, Mother Shaw?"
+
+"We used it quite according to Hoyle," Pauline insisted.  "We got our
+fun that way, didn't we, Mother Shaw?"
+
+Their mother smiled.  "I know I did."
+
+"All the same, after this, you've simply got to 'drink fair, Betsy,' so
+remember," Hilary warned them.
+
+"Bedtime, Patience," Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience got slowly out of her
+big, wicker armchair.
+
+"I did think--seeing there was company,--that probably you'd like me to
+stay up a little later to-night."
+
+"If the 'company' takes my advice, she'll go, too," her mother answered.
+
+"The 'company' thinks she will."  Hilary slipped out of the hammock.
+"Mother, do you suppose Miranda's gone to bed yet?"
+
+"I'll go see," Patience offered, willing to postpone the inevitable for
+even those few moments longer.
+
+"What do you want with Miranda?" Pauline asked.
+
+"To do something for me."
+
+"Can't I do it?"
+
+"No--and it must be done to-night.  Mother, what are you smiling over?"
+
+"I thought it would be that way, dear."
+
+"Miranda's  coming,"  Patience  called.  "She'd just taken her back
+hair down, and she's waiting to twist it up again.  She's got awful
+funny back hair."
+
+"Patience!  Patience!" her mother said reprovingly.
+
+"I mean, there's such a little--"
+
+"Go up-stairs and get yourself ready for bed at once."
+
+Miranda was waiting in the spare room.  "You ain't took sick, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary shook her head.  "Please, Miranda, if it wouldn't be too much
+trouble, will you bring Pauline's bed in here?"
+
+"I guessed as much," Miranda said, moving Hilary's bed to one side.
+
+"Hilary--wouldn't you truly rather have a room to yourself--for a
+change?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I have had one to myself--for eight days--and, now I'm going back to
+the old way."  Sitting among the cushions of the cozy corner, Hilary
+superintended operations, and when the two single white beds were
+standing side by side, in their accustomed fashion, the covers turned
+back for the night, she nodded in satisfied manner.  "Thank you so
+much, Miranda; that's as it should be.  Go get your things, Paul.
+To-morrow, you must move in regularly.  Upper drawer between us, and
+the rest share and share alike, you know."
+
+Patience, who had hit upon the happy expedient of braiding her
+hair--braids, when there were a lot of them, took a long time--got
+slowly up from the hearth rug, her head a sight to behold, with its
+tiny, hornlike red braids sticking out in every direction.  "I suppose
+I'd better be going.  I wish I had someone to talk to, after I'd gone
+to bed."  And a deep sigh escaped her.
+
+Pauline kissed the wistful little face.  "Never mind, old girl, you
+know you'd never stay awake long enough to talk to anyone."
+
+She and Hilary stayed awake talking, however, until Pauline's prudence
+got the better of her joy in having her sister back in more senses than
+one.  It was so long since they had had such a delightful bedtime talk.
+
+"Seeing Winton First Club," Hilary said musingly.  "Paul, you're ever
+so clever.  Shirley insisted those letters stood for 'Suppression of
+Woman's Foibles Club'; and Mr. Dayre suggested they meant, 'Sweet Wild
+Flowers.'"
+
+"You've simply got to go to sleep now, Hilary, else mother'll  come and
+take me away."
+
+Hilary sighed blissfully.  "I'll never say again--that nothing ever
+happens to us."
+
+
+Tom and Josie came to supper the next night.  Shirley was there, too,
+she had stopped in on her way to the post-office with her father that
+afternoon, to ask how Hilary was, and been captured and kept to supper
+and the first club meeting that followed.
+
+Hilary had been sure she would like to join, and Shirley's prompt and
+delighted acceptance of their invitation proved her right.
+
+"I've only got five names on my list," Tom said, as the young folks
+settled themselves on the porch after supper.  "I suppose we'll think
+of others later."
+
+"That'll make ten, counting us five, to begin with," Pauline said.
+
+"Bell and Jack Ward," Tom took out his list, "the Dixon boys and Edna
+Ray.  That's all."
+
+"I'd just like to know where I come in, Tom Brice!" Patience demanded,
+her voice vibrant with indignation.
+
+"Upon my word!  I didn't suppose--"
+
+"I am to belong!  Ain't I, Paul?"
+
+"But Patty--"
+
+"If you're going to say no, you needn't Patty me!"
+
+"We'll see what mother thinks," Hilary suggested.  "You wouldn't want
+to be the only little girl to belong?"
+
+"I shouldn't mind," Patience assured her, then feeling pretty sure that
+Pauline was getting ready to tell her to run away, she decided to
+retire on her own account.  That blissful time, when she should be
+"Miss Shaw," had one drawback, which never failed to assert itself at
+times like these--there would be no younger sister subject to her
+authority.
+
+"Have you decided what we are to do?" Pauline asked Tom, when Patience
+had gone.
+
+"I should say I had.  You'll be up to a ride by next Thursday, Hilary?
+Not a very long ride."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," Hilary answered eagerly.  "Where are we going?"
+
+"That's telling."
+
+"He won't even tell me," Josie said.
+
+Tom's eyes twinkled.  "You're none of you to know until next Thursday.
+Say, at four o'clock."
+
+"Oh," Shirley said, "I think it's going to be the nicest club that ever
+was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PERSONALLY CONDUCTED
+
+"Am I late?" Shirley asked, as Pauline came down the steps to meet her
+Thursday afternoon.
+
+"No, indeed, it still wants five minutes to four.  Will you come in, or
+shall we wait out here?  Hilary is under bond not to make her
+appearance until the last minute."
+
+"Out here, please," Shirley answered, sitting down on the upper step.
+"What a delightful old garden this is.  Father has at last succeeded in
+finding me my nag, horses appear to be at a premium in Winton, and even
+if he isn't first cousin to your Bedelia, I'm coming to take you and
+Hilary to drive some afternoon.  Father got me a surrey, because,
+later, we're expecting some of the boys up, and we'll need a two-seated
+rig."
+
+"We're coming to take you driving, too," Pauline said.  "Just at
+present, it doesn't seem as if the summer would be long enough for all
+the things we mean to do in it."
+
+"And you don't know yet, what we are to do this afternoon?"
+
+"Only, that it's to be a drive and, afterwards, supper at the Brices'.
+That's all Josie, herself, knows about it.  Tom had to take her and
+Mrs. Brice into so much of his confidence."
+
+Through the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon, came the notes of
+a horn, sounding nearer and nearer.  A moment later, a stage drawn by
+two of the hotel horses turned in at the parsonage drive at a fine
+speed, drawing up before the steps where Pauline and Shirley were
+sitting, with considerable nourish.  Beside the driver sat Tom, in long
+linen duster, the megaphone belonging to the school team in one hand.
+Along each side of the stage was a length of white cloth, on which was
+lettered--
+
+      SEEING WINTON STAGE
+
+As the stage stopped, Tom sprang down, a most businesslike air on his
+boyish face.
+
+"This is the Shaw residence, I believe?" he asked, consulting a piece
+of paper.
+
+"I--I reckon so," Pauline answered, too taken aback to know quite what
+she was saying.
+
+"All right!" Tom said.  "I understand--"
+
+"Then it's a good deal more than I do," Pauline cut in.
+
+"That there are several young people here desirous of joining our
+little sight-seeing trip this afternoon."
+
+From around the corner of the house at that moment peeped a small
+freckled face, the owner of which was decidedly very desirous of
+joining that trip.  Only a deep sense of personal injury kept Patience
+from coming forward,--she wasn't going where she wasn't wanted--but
+some day--they'd see!
+
+Shirley clapped her hands delightedly.  "How perfectly jolly!  Oh, I am
+glad you asked me to join the club."
+
+"I'll go tell Hilary!" Pauline said.  "Tom, however--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss?"
+
+Pauline laughed and turned away.
+
+"Oh, I say, Paul," Tom dropped his mask of pretended dignity, "let the
+Imp come with us--this time."
+
+Pauline looked doubtful.  She, as well as Tom, had caught sight of that
+small flushed face, on which longing and indignation had been so
+plainly written.  "I'm not sure that mother will--" she began, "But
+I'll see."
+
+"Tell her--just this first time," Tom urged, and Shirley added, "She
+would love it so."
+
+"Mother says," Pauline reported presently, "that Patience may go _this_
+time--only we'll have to wait while she gets ready."
+
+From an upper window came an eager voice.  "I'm most ready now!"
+
+"She'll never forget it--as long as she lives," Shirley said, "and if
+she hadn't gone she would never've forgotten _that_."
+
+"Nor let us--for one while," Pauline remarked--"I'd a good deal rather
+work with than against that young lady."
+
+Hilary came down then, looking ready and eager for the outing.  She had
+been out in the trap with Pauline several times; once, even as far as
+the manor to call upon Shirley.
+
+"Why," she exclaimed, "you've brought the Folly!  Tom, how ever did you
+manage it?"
+
+"Beg pardon, Miss?"
+
+Hilary shrugged her shoulders, coming nearer for a closer inspection of
+the big lumbering stage.  It had been new, when the present proprietor
+of the hotel, then a young man, now a middle-aged one, had come into
+his inheritance.  Fresh back from a winter in town, he had indulged
+high hopes of booming his sleepy little village as a summer resort, and
+had ordered the stage--since christened the Folly--for the convenience
+and enjoyment of the guests--who had never come.  A long idle lifetime
+the Folly had passed in the hotel carriage-house; used so seldom, as to
+make that using a village event, but never allowed to fall into
+disrepair, through some fancy of its owner.
+
+As Tom opened the door at the back now, handing his guests in with much
+ceremony, Hilary laughed softly.  "It doesn't seem quite--respectful to
+actually sit down in the poor old thing.  I wonder, if it's more
+indignant, or pleased, at being dragged out into the light of day for a
+parcel of young folks?"
+
+"'Butchered to make a Roman Holiday'?" Shirley laughed.
+
+At that moment Patience appeared, rather breathless--but not half as
+much so as Miranda, who had been drawn into service, and now appeared
+also--"You ain't half buttoned up behind, Patience!" she protested,
+"and your hair ribbon's not tied fit to be seen.--My sakes, to think of
+anyone ever having named that young one _Patience_!"
+
+"I'll overhaul her, Miranda," Pauline comforted her.  "Come here,
+Patience."
+
+"Please, I am to sit up in front with you, ain't I, Tom?" Patience
+urged.  "You and I always get on so beautifully together, you know."
+
+Tom relaxed a second time.  "I don't see how I can refuse after that,"
+and the over-hauling process being completed, Patience climbed up to
+the high front seat, where she beamed down on the rest with such a look
+of joyful content that they could only smile back in response.
+
+From the doorway, came a warning voice.  "Not too far, Tom, for Hilary;
+and remember, Patience, what you have promised me."
+
+"All right, Mrs. Shaw," Tom assured her, and Patience nodded her head
+assentingly.
+
+From the parsonage, they went first to the doctor's.  Josie was waiting
+for them at the gate, and as they drew up before it, with horn blowing,
+and horses almost prancing--the proprietor of the hotel had given them
+his best horses, in honor of the Folly--she stared from her brother to
+the stage, with its white placard, with much the same look of wonder in
+her eyes as Pauline and Hilary had shown.
+
+"Miss Brice?"  Tom was consulting his list again.
+
+"So that's what you've been concocting, Tom Brice!" Josie answered.
+
+Tom's face was as sober as his manner.  "I am afraid we are a little
+behind scheduled time, being unavoidably delayed."
+
+"He means they had to wait for me to get ready," Patience explained.
+"You didn't expect to see me along, did you, Josie?"  And she smiled
+blandly.
+
+"I don't know what I did expect--certainly, not this."  Josie took her
+place in the stage, not altogether sure whether the etiquette of the
+occasion allowed of her recognizing its other inmates, or not.
+
+But Pauline nodded politely.  "Good afternoon.  Lovely day, isn't it?"
+she remarked, while Shirley asked, if she had ever made this trip
+before.
+
+"Not in this way," Josie answered.  "I've never ridden in the Folly
+before.  Have you, Paul?"
+
+"Once, from the depot to the hotel, when I was a youngster, about
+Impatience's age.  You remember, Hilary?"
+
+"Of course I do.  Uncle Jerry took me up in front."  Uncle Jerry was
+the name the owner of the stage went by in Winton.  "He'd had a lot of
+Boston people up, and had been showing them around."
+
+"This reminds me of the time father and I did our own New York in one
+of those big 'Seeing New York' motors," Shirley said.  "I came home
+feeling almost as if we'd been making a trip 'round some foreign city."
+
+"Tom can't make Winton seem foreign," Josie declared.
+
+There were three more houses to stop at, lower down the street.  From
+windows and porches all along the route, laughing, curious faces stared
+wonderingly after them, while a small body-guard of children sprang up
+as if by magic to attend them on their way.  This added greatly to the
+delight of Patience, who smiled condescendingly down upon various
+intimates, blissfully conscious of the envy she was exciting in their
+breasts.  It was delightful to be one of the club for a time, at least.
+
+"And now, if you please, Ladies and Gentlemen," Tom had closed the door
+to upon the last of his party, "we will drive first to The Vermont
+House, a hostelry well known throughout the surrounding country, and
+conducted by one of Vermont's best known and honored sons."
+
+"Hear!  Hear!" Jack Ward cried.  "I say, Tom, get that off again where
+Uncle Jerry can hear it, and you'll always be sure of his vote."
+
+They had reached the rambling old hotel, from the front porch of which
+Uncle Jerry himself, surveyed them genially.
+
+"Ladies and Gentlemen," standing up, Tom turned to face the occupants
+of the stage, his megaphone, carried merely as a badge of office,
+raised like a conductor's baton, "I wish to impress upon your minds
+that the building now before you--liberal rates for the season--is
+chiefly remarkable for never having sheltered the Father of His
+Country."
+
+"Now how do you know that?" Uncle Jerry protested.   "Ain't that North
+Chamber called the 'Washington room'?"
+
+"Oh, but that's because the first proprietor's first wife occupied that
+room--and she was famous for her Washington pie," Tom answered readily.
+"I assure you, sir, that any and all information which I shall have the
+honor to impart to these strangers within our gates may be relied upon
+for its accuracy."  He gave the driver the word, and the Folly
+continued on its way, stopping presently before a little
+story-and-a-half cottage not far below the hotel and on a level with
+the street.
+
+"This cottage, my young friends," Tom said impressively, "should
+be--and I trust is--enshrined deep within the hearts of all true
+Wintonites.  Latterly, it has come to be called the Barker cottage, but
+its real title is 'The Flag House'; so called, because from that humble
+porch, the first Stars and Stripes ever seen in Winton flung its colors
+to the breeze.  The original flag is still in possession of a lineal
+descendant of its first owner, who is, unfortunately, not an inhabitant
+of this town."  The boyish gravity of tone and manner was not all
+assumed now.
+
+No one spoke for a moment; eleven pairs of young eyes were looking out
+at the little weather-stained building with new interest.  "I thought,"
+Bell Ward said at last, "that they called it the _flag_ place, because
+someone of that name had used to live there."
+
+"So did I," Hilary said.
+
+As the stage moved on, Shirley leaned back for another look.  "I shall
+get father to come and sketch it," she said.  "Isn't it the quaintest
+old place?"
+
+"We will now proceed," Tom announced, "to the village green, where I
+shall have the pleasure of relating to you certain anecdotes regarding
+the part it played in the early life of this interesting old village."
+
+"Not too many, old man," Tracy Dixon suggested hurriedly, "or it may
+prove a one-sided pleasure."
+
+The green lay in the center of the town,--a wide, open space, with
+flagstaff in the middle; fine old elms bordered it on all four sides.
+The Vermont House faced it, on the north, and on the opposite side
+stood the general store, belonging to Mr. Ward, with one or two smaller
+places of business.
+
+"The business section" of the town, Tom called it, and quite failed to
+notice Tracy's lament that he had not brought his opera glasses with
+him.  "Really, you know," Tracy explained to his companions, "I should
+have liked awfully to see it.  I'm mighty interested in business
+sections."
+
+"Cut that out," his brother Bob commanded, "the chap up in front is
+getting ready to hold forth again."
+
+They were simple enough, those anecdotes, that "the chap up in front"
+told them; but in the telling, the boy's voice lost again all touch of
+mock gravity.  His listeners, sitting there in the June sunshine,
+looking out across the old green, flecked with the waving tree shadows,
+and bright with the buttercups nodding here and there, seemed to see
+those men and boys drilling there in the far-off summer twilights; to
+hear the sharp words of command; the sound of fife and drum.  And the
+familiar names mentioned more than once, well-known village names,
+names belonging to their own families in some instances, served to
+deepen the impression.
+
+"Why," Edna Ray said slowly, "they're like the things one learns at
+school; somehow, they make one realize that there truly was a
+Revolutionary War.  Wherever did you pick up such a lot of town
+history, Tom?"
+
+"That's telling," Tom answered.
+
+Back up the broad, main street they went, past the pleasant village
+houses, with their bright, well-kept dooryards, under the
+wide-spreading trees beneath which so many generations of young folks
+had come and gone; past the square, white parsonage, with its setting
+of green lawn; past the old stone church, and on out into the by-roads
+of the village, catching now and then a glimpse of the great lake
+beyond; and now and then, down some lane, a bit of the street they had
+left.  They saw it all with eyes that for once had lost the
+indifference of long familiarity, and were swift to catch instead its
+quiet, restful beauty, helped in this, perhaps, by Shirley's very real
+admiration.
+
+The ride ended at Dr. Brice's gate, and here Tom dropped his mantle of
+authority, handing all further responsibility as to the entertainment
+of the party over to his sister.
+
+Hilary was carried off to rest until supper time, and the rest
+scattered about the garden, a veritable rose garden on that June
+afternoon, roses being Dr. Brice's pet hobby.
+
+"It must be lovely to _live_ in the country," Shirley said, dropping
+down on the grass before the doctor's favorite _La France_, and laying
+her face against the soft, pink petals of a half-blown bud.
+
+Edna eyed her curiously.  She had rather resented the admittance of
+this city girl into their set.  Shirley's skirt and blouse were of
+white linen, there was a knot of red under the broad sailor collar, she
+was hatless and the dark hair,--never kept too closely within
+bounds--was tossed and blown; there was certainly nothing especially
+cityfied in either appearance or manner.
+
+"That's the way I feel about the city," Edna said slowly, "it must be
+lovely to live _there_."
+
+Shirley laughed.  "It is.  I reckon just being alive anywhere such days
+as these ought to content one.  You haven't been over to the manor
+lately, have you?  I mean since we came there.  We're really getting
+the garden to look like a garden.  Reclaiming the wilderness, father
+calls it.  You'll come over now, won't you--the club, I mean?"
+
+"Why, of course," Edna answered, she thought she would like to go.  "I
+suppose you've been over to the forts?"
+
+"Lots of times--father's ever so interested in them, and it's just a
+pleasant row across, after supper."
+
+"I have fasted too long, I must eat again," Tom remarked, coming across
+the lawn.  "Miss Dayre, may I have the honor?"
+
+"Are you conductor, or merely club president now?" Shirley asked.
+
+"Oh, I've dropped into private life again.  There comes Hilary--doesn't
+look much like an invalid, does she?"
+
+"But she didn't look very well the first time I saw her," Shirley
+answered.
+
+The long supper table was laid under the apple trees at the foot of the
+garden, which in itself served to turn the occasion into a festive
+affair.
+
+"You've given us a bully send-off, Mr. President," Bob declared.  "It's
+going to be sort of hard for the rest of us to keep up with you."
+
+"By the way," Tom said, "Dr. Brice--some of you may have heard of
+him--would like to become an honorary member of this club.  Any
+contrary votes?"
+
+"What's an honorary member?" Patience asked.  Patience had been
+remarkably good that afternoon--so good that Pauline began to feel
+worried, dreading the reaction.
+
+"One who has all the fun and none of the work," Tracy explained, a
+merry twinkle in his brown eyes.
+
+Patience considered the matter.  "I shouldn't mind the work; but mother
+won't let me join regularly--mother takes notions now and then--but,
+please mayn't I be an honorary member?"
+
+"Onery, you mean, young lady!" Tracy corrected.
+
+Patience flashed a pair of scornful eyes at him.  "Father says punning
+is the very lowest form of--"
+
+"Never mind, Patience," Pauline said, "we haven't answered Tom yet.  I
+vote we extend our thanks to the doctor for being willing to join."
+
+"He isn't a bit more willing than I am," Patience observed.  There was
+a general laugh among the real members, then Tom said, "If a Shaw votes
+for a Brice, I don't very well see how a Brice can refuse to vote for a
+Shaw."
+
+"The motion is carried," Bob seconded him.
+
+"Subject to mother's consent," Pauline added, a quite unnecessary bit
+of elder sisterly interference, Patience thought.
+
+"And now, even if it is telling on yourself, suppose you own up, old
+man?"  Jack Ward turned to Tom.  "You see we don't in the least credit
+you with having produced all that village history from your own stores
+of knowledge."
+
+"I never said you need to," Tom answered, "even the idea was not
+altogether original with me."
+
+Patience suddenly leaned forward, her face all alight with interest.
+"I love my love with an A," she said slowly, "because he's an--author."
+
+Tom whistled.  "Well, of all the uncanny young ones!"
+
+"It's very simple," Patience said loftily.
+
+"So it is, Imp," Tracy exclaimed; "I love him with an A, because he's
+an--A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N!"
+
+"I took him to the sign of The Apple Tree," Bell took up the thread.
+
+"And fed him (mentally) on subjects--antedeluvian, or almost so,"
+Hilary added.
+
+"What _are_ you talking about?" Edna asked impatiently.
+
+"Mr. Allen," Pauline told her.
+
+"I saw him and Tom walking down the back lane the other night,"
+Patience explained.  Patience felt that she had won her right to belong
+to the club now--they'd see she wasn't just a silly little girl.
+"Father says he--I don't mean Tom--"
+
+"We didn't suppose you did," Tracy laughed.
+
+"Knows more history than any other man in the state; especially, the
+history of the state."
+
+"Mr. Allen!" Shirley exclaimed.  "T. C. Allen!  Why, father and I read
+one of his books just the other week.  It's mighty interesting.  Does
+he live in Winton?"
+
+"He surely does," Bob grinned, "and every little while he comes up to
+school and puts us through our paces.  It's his boast that he was born,
+bred and educated right in Vermont.  He isn't a bad old buck--if he
+wouldn't pester a fellow with too many questions."
+
+"He lives out beyond us," Hilary told Shirley.  "There's a great apple
+tree right in front of the gate.  He has an old house-keeper to look
+after him.  I wish you could see his books--he's literally surrounded
+with them."
+
+"Not storybooks," Patience added.  "He says, they're books full of
+stories, if one's a mind to look for them."
+
+"Please," Edna protested, "let's change the subject.  Are we to have
+badges, or not?"
+
+"Pins," Bell suggested.
+
+"Pins would have to be made to order," Pauline objected, "and would be
+more or less expensive."
+
+"And it's an unwritten by-law of this club, that we shall go to no
+unnecessary expense," Tom insisted.
+
+"But--" Bell began.
+
+"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Tom broke in, "but Uncle Jerry
+didn't charge for the stage--he said he was only too glad to have the
+poor thing used--'twas a dull life for her, shut up in the
+carriage-house year in and year out."
+
+"The Folly isn't a she," Patience protested.
+
+"Folly generally is feminine," Tracy said, "and so--"
+
+"And he let us have the horses, too--for our initial outing," Tom went
+on.  "Said the stage wouldn't be of much use without them."
+
+"Three cheers for Uncle Jerry!" Bob Dixon cried.  "Let's make him an
+honorary member."
+
+"But the badges," Edna said.  "I never saw such people for going off at
+tangents."
+
+"Ribbon would be pretty," Shirley suggested, "with the name of the club
+in gilt letters.  I can letter pretty well."
+
+Her suggestion was received with general acclamation, and after much
+discussion, as to color, dark blue was decided on.
+
+"Blue goes rather well with red," Tom said, "and as two of our members
+have red hair," his glance went from Patience to Pauline.
+
+"I move we adjourn, the president's getting personal," Pauline pushed
+back her chair.
+
+"Who's turn is it to be next?" Jack asked.
+
+They drew lots with blades of grass; it fell to Hilary.  "I warn you,"
+she said, "that I can't come up to Tom."
+
+Then the first meeting of the new club broke up, the members going
+their various ways.  Shirley went as far as the parsonage, where she
+was to wait for her father.
+
+"I've had a beautiful time," she said warmly.  "And I've thought what
+to do when my turn comes.  Only, I think you'll have to let father in
+as an honorary, I'll need him to help me out."
+
+"We'll be only too glad," Pauline said heartily.  "This club's growing
+fast, isn't it?  Have you decided, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary shook her head, "N-not exactly; I've sort of an idea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HILARY'S TURN
+
+Pauline and Hilary were up in their own room, the "new room," as it had
+come to be called, deep in the discussion of certain samples that had
+come in that morning's mail.
+
+Uncle Paul's second check was due before long now, and then there were
+to be new summer dresses, or rather the goods for them, one apiece all
+around.
+
+"Because, of course," Pauline said, turning the pretty scraps over,
+"Mother Shaw's got to have one, too.  We'll have to get it--on the
+side--or she'll declare she doesn't need it, and she does."
+
+"Just the goods won't come to so very much," Hilary said.
+
+"No, indeed, and mother and I can make them."
+
+"We certainly got a lot out of that other check, or rather, you and
+mother did," Hilary went on.  "And it isn't all gone?"
+
+"Pretty nearly, except the little we decided to lay by each month.  But
+we did stretch it out in a good many directions.  I don't suppose any
+of the other twenty-fives will seem quite so big."
+
+"But there won't be such big things to get with them," Hilary said,
+"except these muslins."
+
+"It's unspeakably delightful to have money for the little unnecessary
+things, isn't it?" Pauline rejoiced.
+
+That first check had really gone a long ways.  After buying the matting
+and paper, there had been quite a fair sum left; enough to pay for two
+magazine subscriptions, one a review that Mr. Shaw had long wanted to
+take, another, one of the best of the current monthlies; and to lay in
+quite a store of new ribbons and pretty turnovers, and several yards of
+silkaline to make cushion covers for the side porch, for Pauline,
+taking hint from Hilary's out-door parlor at the farm, had been quick
+to make the most of their own deep, vine-shaded side porch at the
+parsonage.
+
+The front piazza belonged in a measure to the general public, there
+were too many people coming and going to make it private enough for a
+family gathering place.  But the side porch was different, broad and
+square, only two or three steps from the ground; it was their favorite
+gathering place all through the long, hot summers.
+
+With a strip of carpet for the floor, a small table resurrected from
+the garret, a bench and three wicker rockers, freshly painted green,
+and Hilary's hammock, rich in pillows, Pauline felt that their porch
+was one to be proud of.  To Patience had been entrusted the care of
+keeping the old blue and white Canton bowl filled with fresh flowers,
+and there were generally books and papers on the table.  And they might
+have done it all before, Pauline thought now, if they had stopped to
+think.
+
+"Have you decided?" Hilary asked her, glancing at the sober face bent
+over the samples.
+
+"I believe I'd forgotten all about them; I think I'll choose this--"
+Pauline held up a sample of blue and white striped dimity.
+
+"That _is_ pretty."
+
+"You can have it, if you like."
+
+"Oh, no, I'll have the pink."
+
+"And the lavender dot, for Mother Shaw?"
+
+"Yes," Hilary agreed.
+
+"Patience had better have straight white, it'll be in the wash so
+often."
+
+"Why not let her choose for herself, Paul?" Hilary suggested.
+
+"Hilary!  Oh, Hilary Shaw!" Patience called excitedly, at that moment
+from downstairs.
+
+"Up here!" Hilary called back, and Patience came hurrying up, stumbling
+more than once in her eagerness.  The next moment, she pushed wide the
+door of the "new room."  "See what's come!  It's addressed to you,
+Hilary--it came by express--Jed brought it up from the depot!"  Jed was
+the village expressman.
+
+She deposited her burden on the table beside Hilary.  It was a
+good-sized, square box, and with all that delightful air of mystery
+about it that such packages usually have.
+
+"What do you suppose it is, Paul?" Hilary cried.  "Why, I've never had
+anything come unexpectedly, like this, before."
+
+"A whole lot of things are happening to us that never've happened
+before," Patience said.  "See, it's from Uncle Paul!" she pointed to
+the address at the upper left-hand corner of the package.  "Oh, Hilary,
+let me open it, please, I'll go get the tack hammer."
+
+"Tell mother to come," Hilary said.
+
+"Maybe it's books, Paul!" she added, as Patience scampered off.
+
+Pauline lifted the box.  "It doesn't seem quite heavy enough for books."
+
+"But what else could it be?"
+
+Pauline laughed.  "It isn't another Bedelia, at all events.  It could
+be almost anything.  Hilary, I believe Uncle Paul is really glad I
+wrote to him."
+
+"Well, I'm not exactly sorry," Hilary declared.
+
+"Mother can't come yet," Patience explained, reappearing.  "She says
+not to wait.  It's that tiresome Mrs. Dane; she just seems to know when
+we don't want her, and then to come--only, I suppose if she waited 'til
+we did want to see her, she'd never get here."
+
+"Mother didn't say that.  Impatience, and you'd better not let her hear
+you saying it," Pauline warned.
+
+But Patience was busy with the tack hammer.  "You can take the inside
+covers off," she said to Hilary.
+
+"Thanks, awfully," Hilary murmured.
+
+"It'll be my turn next, won't it?" Patience dropped the tack hammer,
+and wrenched off the cover of the box--"Go ahead, Hilary!  Oh, how slow
+you are!"
+
+For Hilary was going about her share of the unpacking in the most
+leisurely way.  "I want to guess first," she said.  "Such a lot of
+wrappings!  It must be something breakable."
+
+"A picture, maybe," Pauline suggested.  Patience dropped cross-legged
+on the floor.  "Then I don't think Uncle Paul's such a very sensible
+sort of person," she said.
+
+"No, not pictures!"  Hilary lifted something from within the box, "but
+something to get pictures with.  See, Paul!"
+
+"A camera!  Oh, Hilary!"
+
+"And not a little tiny one."  Patience leaned over to examine the box.
+"It's a three and a quarter by four and a quarter.  We can have fun
+now, can't we?"  Patience believed firmly in the cooperative principle.
+
+"Tom'll show you how to use it," Pauline said.  "He fixed up a dark
+room last fall, you know, for himself."
+
+"And here are all the doings."  Patience came to investigate the
+further contents of the express package.  "Films and those funny little
+pans for developing in, and all."
+
+Inside the camera was a message to the effect that Mr. Shaw hoped his
+niece would be pleased with his present and that it would add to the
+summer's pleasures,
+
+"He's getting real uncley, isn't he?" Patience observed.  Then she
+caught sight of the samples Pauline had let fall.  "Oh, how pretty!
+Are they for dresses for us?"
+
+"They'd make pretty scant ones, I'd say," Pauline, answered.
+
+"Silly!"  Patience spread the bright scraps out on her blue checked
+gingham apron.  "I just bet you've been choosing!  Why didn't you call
+me?"
+
+"To help us choose?" Pauline asked, with a laugh.
+
+But at the present moment, her small sister was quite impervious to
+sarcasm.  "I think I'll have this," she pointed to a white ground,
+closely sprinkled with vivid green dots.
+
+"Carrots and greens!" Pauline declared, glancing at her sister's red
+curls.  "You'd look like an animated boiled dinner!  If you please, who
+said anything about your choosing?"
+
+"You look ever so nice in all white, Patty," Hilary said hastily.
+
+"Have you and Paul chosen all white?"
+
+"N-no."
+
+"Then I shan't!"  She looked up quickly, her blue eyes very persuasive.
+"I don't very often have a brand new, just-out-of-the-store dress, do
+I?"
+
+Pauline laughed.  "Only don't let it be the green then.  Good, here's
+mother, at last!"
+
+"Mummy, is blue or green better?" Patience demanded.
+
+Mrs. Shaw examined and duly admired the camera, and decided in favor of
+a blue dot; then she said, "Mrs. Boyd is down-stairs, Hilary."
+
+"How nice!" Hilary jumped up.  "I want to see her most particularly."
+
+"Bless me, child!" Mrs. Boyd exclaimed, as Hilary came into the
+sitting-room, "how you are getting on!  Why, you don't look like the
+same girl of three weeks back."
+
+Hilary sat down beside her on the sofa.  "I've got a most tremendous
+favor to ask, Mrs. Boyd."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that!  I hear you young folks are having fine times
+lately.  Shirley was telling me about the club the other night."
+
+"It's about the club--and it's in two parts; first, won't you and Mr.
+Boyd be honorary members?--That means you can come to the good times if
+you like, you know.--And the other is--you see, it's my turn next--"
+And when Pauline came down, she found the two deep in consultation.
+
+The next afternoon, Patience carried out her long-intended plan of
+calling at the manor.  Mrs. Shaw was from home for the day, Pauline and
+Hilary were out in the trap with Tom and Josie and the camera.  "So
+there's really no one to ask permission of, Towser," Patience
+explained, as they started off down the back lane.  "Father's got the
+study door closed, of course that means he mustn't be disturbed for
+anything unless it's absolutely necessary."
+
+Towser wagged comprehendingly.  He was quite ready for a ramble this
+bright afternoon, especially a ramble 'cross lots.
+
+Shirley and her father were not at home, neither--which was even more
+disappointing--were any of the dogs; so, after a short chat with Betsy
+Todd, considerably curtailed by that body's too frankly expressed
+wonder that Patience should've been allowed to come unattended by any
+of her elders, she and Towser wandered home again.
+
+In the lane, they met Sextoness Jane, sitting on the roadside, under a
+shady tree.  She and Patience exchanged views on parish matters,
+discussed the new club, and had an all-round good gossip.
+
+"My sakes!" Jane said, her faded eyes bright with interest, "it must
+seem like Christmas all the time up to your house."  She looked past
+Patience to the old church beyond, around which her life had centered
+itself for so many years.  "There weren't ever such doings at the
+parsonage--nor anywhere else, what I knowed of--when I was a girl.
+Why, that Bedelia horse!  Seems like she give an air to the whole
+place--so pretty and high-stepping--it's most's good's a circus--not
+that I've ever been to a circus, but I've hear tell on them--just to
+see her go prancing by."
+
+"I think," Patience said that evening, as they were all sitting on the
+porch in the twilight, "I think that Jane would like awfully to belong
+to our club."
+
+"Have you started a club, too?" Pauline teased.
+
+Patience tossed her red head.  "'The S. W. F. Club,' I mean; and you
+know it, Paul Shaw.  When I get to be fifteen, I shan't act half so
+silly as some folks."
+
+"What ever put that idea in your head?" Hilary asked.  It was one of
+Hilary's chief missions in life to act as intermediary between her
+younger and older sister.
+
+"Oh, I just gathered it, from what she said.  Towser and I met her this
+afternoon, on our way home from the manor."
+
+"From where, Patience?" her mother asked quickly, with that faculty for
+taking hold of the wrong end of a remark, that Patience had had
+occasion to deplore more than once.
+
+And in the diversion this caused, Sextoness Jane was forgotten.
+
+
+"Here comes Mr. Boyd, Hilary!" Pauline called from the foot of the
+stairs.
+
+Hilary finished tying the knot of cherry ribbon at her throat, then
+snatching up her big sun-hat from the bed, she ran down-stairs.
+
+Before the side door, stood the big wagon, in which Mr. Boyd had driven
+over from the farm, its bottom well filled with fresh straw.  For
+Hilary's outing was to be a cherry picnic at The Maples, with supper
+under the trees, and a drive home later by moonlight.
+
+Shirley had brought over the badges a day or two before; the blue
+ribbon, with its gilt lettering, gave an added touch to the girls'
+white dresses and cherry ribbons.
+
+Mr. Dayre had been duly made an honorary member.  He and Shirley were
+to meet the rest of the party at the farm.  As for Patience H. M., as
+Tom called her, she had been walking very softly the past few days.
+There had been no long rambles without permission, no making calls on
+her own account.  There _had_ been a private interview between herself
+and Mr. Boyd, whom she had met, not altogether by chance, down street
+the day before.
+
+The result was that, at the present moment, Patience--white-frocked,
+blue-badged, cherry-ribboned--was sitting demurely in one corner of the
+big wagon.
+
+Mr. Boyd chuckled as he glanced down at her; a body'd have to get up
+pretty early in the morning to get ahead of that youngster.  Though not
+in white, nor wearing cherry ribbons, Mr. Boyd sported his badge with
+much complacency.  Winton was looking up, decidedly.  'Twasn't such a
+slow old place, after all.
+
+"All ready?" he asked, as Pauline slipped a couple of big pasteboard
+boxes under the wagon seat, and threw in some shawls for the coming
+home.
+
+"All ready.  Good-by, Mother Shaw.  Remember, you and father have got
+to come with us one of these days.  I guess if Mr. Boyd can take a
+holiday you can."
+
+"Good-by," Hilary called, and Patience waved joyously.  "This'll make
+two times," she comforted herself, "and two times ought to be enough to
+establish what father calls 'a precedent.'"
+
+They stopped at the four other houses in turn; then Mr. Boyd touched
+his horses up lightly, rattling them along at a good rate out on to the
+road leading to the lake and so to The Maples.
+
+There was plenty of fun and laughter by the way.  They had gone
+picnicking together so many summers, this same crowd, had had so many
+good times together.  "And yet it seems different, this year, doesn't
+it?" Bell said.  "We really aren't doing new things--exactly, still
+they seem so."
+
+Tracy touched his badge.  "These are the 'Blue Ribbon Brand,' best
+goods in the market."
+
+"Come to think of it, there aren't so very many new things one can do,"
+Tom remarked.
+
+"Not in Winton, at any rate," Bob added.
+
+"If anyone dares say anything derogatory to Winton, on this, or any
+other, outing of the 'S. W. F. Club,' he, or she, will get into
+trouble," Josie said sternly.
+
+Mrs. Boyd was waiting for them on the steps, Shirley close by, while a
+glimpse of a white umbrella seen through the trees told that Mr. Dayre
+was not far off.
+
+"It's the best cherry season in years," Mrs. Boyd declared, as the
+young folks came laughing and crowding about her.  She was a prime
+favorite with them all.  "My, how nice you look!  Those badges are
+mighty pretty."
+
+"Where's yours?" Pauline demanded.
+
+"It's in my top drawer, dear.  Looks like I'm too old to go wearing
+such things, though 'twas ever so good in you to send me one."
+
+"Hilary," Pauline turned to her sister, "I'm sure Mrs. Boyd'll let you
+go to her top drawer.  Not a stroke of business does this club do,
+until this particular member has her badge on."
+
+"Now," Tom asked, when that little matter had been attended to, "what's
+the order of the day?"
+
+"I hope you've worn old dresses?" Mrs. Boyd said.
+
+"I haven't, ma'am," Tracy announced.
+
+"Order!" Bob called.
+
+"Eat all you like--so long's you don't get sick--and each pick a nice
+basket to take home," Mrs. Boyd explained.  There were no cherries
+anywhere else quite so big and fine, as those at The Maples.
+
+"You to command, we to obey!" Tracy declared.
+
+"Boys to pick, girls to pick up," Tom ordered, as they scattered about
+among the big, bountifully laden trees.
+
+  "For cherry time,
+  Is merry time,"
+
+Shirley improvised, catching the cluster of great red and white
+cherries Jack tossed down to her.
+
+Even more than the rest of the young folks, Shirley was getting the
+good of this happy, out-door summer, with its quiet pleasures and
+restful sense of home life.  She had never known anything before like
+it.  It was very different, certainly, from the studio life in New
+York, different from the sketching rambles she had taken other summers
+with her father.  They were delightful, too, and it was pleasant to
+think of going back to them again--some day; but just at present, it
+was good to be a girl among other girls, interested in all the simple,
+homely things each day brought up.
+
+And her father was content, too, else how could she have been so?  It
+was doing him no end of good.  Painting a little, sketching a little,
+reading and idling a good deal, and through it all, immensely amused at
+the enthusiasm with which his daughter threw herself into the village
+life.  "I shall begin to think soon, that you were born and raised in
+Winton," he had said to her that very morning, as she came in fresh
+from a conference with Betsy Todd.  Betsy might be spending her summer
+in a rather out-of-the-way spot, and her rheumatism might prevent her
+from getting into town--as she expressed it--but very little went on
+that Betsy did not hear of, and she was not one to keep her news to
+herself.
+
+"So shall I," Shirley had laughed back.  She wondered now, if Pauline
+or Hilary would enjoy a studio winter, as much as she was reveling in
+her Winton summer?  She decided that probably they would.
+
+Cherry time _was_ merry time that afternoon.  Of course.  Bob fell out
+of one of the trees, but Bob was so used to tumbling, and the others
+were so used to having him tumble, that no one paid much attention to
+it; and equally, of course, Patience tore her dress and had to be taken
+in hand by Mrs. Boyd.
+
+"Every rose must have its thorns, you know, kid," Tracy told her, as
+she was borne away for this enforced retirement.  "We'll leave a few
+cherries, 'gainst you get back."
+
+Patience elevated her small freckled nose, she was an adept at it.  "I
+reckon they will be mighty few--if you have anything to do with it."
+
+"You're having a fine time, aren't you, Senior?" Shirley asked, as Mr.
+Dayre came scrambling down from his tree; he had been routed from his
+sketching and pressed into service by his indefatigable daughter.
+
+"Scrumptious!  Shirley, you've got a fine color--only it's laid on in
+spots."
+
+"You're spattery, too," she retorted.  "I must go help lay out the
+supper now."
+
+"Will anyone want supper, after so many cherries?" Mr. Dayre asked.
+
+"Will they?" Pauline laughed.  "Well, you just wait and see."
+
+Some of the boys brought the table from the house, stretching it out to
+its uttermost length.  The girls laid the cloth, Mrs. Boyd provided,
+and unpacked the boxes stacked on the porch.  From the kitchen came an
+appetizing odor of hot coffee.  Hilary and Bell went off after flowers
+for the center of the table.
+
+"We'll put one at each place, suggestive of the person--like a place
+card," Hilary proposed.
+
+"Here's a daisy for Mrs. Boyd," Bell laughed.
+
+"Let's give that to Mr. Boyd and cut her one of these old-fashioned
+spice pinks," Hilary said.
+
+"Better put a bit of pepper-grass for the Imp," Tracy suggested, as the
+girls went from place to place up and down the long table.
+
+"Paul's to have a pansy," Hilary insisted.  She remembered how, if it
+hadn't been for Pauline's "thought" that wet May afternoon, everything
+would still be as dull and dreary as it was then.
+
+At her own place she found a spray of belated wild roses, Tom had laid
+there, the pink of their petals not more delicate than the soft color
+coming and going in the girl's face.
+
+"We've brought for-get-me-not for you, Shirley," Bell said, "so that
+you won't forget us when you get back to the city."
+
+"As if I were likely to!" Shirley exclaimed.
+
+"Sound the call to supper, sonny!" Tom told Bob, and Bob, raising the
+farm dinner-horn, sounded it with a will, making the girls cover their
+ears with their hands and bringing the boys up with a rush.
+
+"It's a beautiful picnic, isn't it?" Patience said, reappearing in time
+to slip into place with the rest.
+
+"And after supper, I will read you the club song," Tracy announced.
+
+"Are we to have a club song?" Edna asked.
+
+"We are."
+
+"Read it now, son--while we eat," Tom suggested.
+
+Tracy rose promptly--"Mind you save me a few scraps then.  First, it
+isn't original--"
+
+"All the better," Jack commented.
+
+"Hush up, and listen--
+
+  "'A cheerful world?--It surely is.
+    And if you understand your biz
+    You'll taboo the worry worm,
+    And cultivate the happy germ.
+
+  "'It's a habit to be happy,
+    Just as much as to be scrappy.
+    So put the frown away awhile,
+    And try a little sunny smile.'"
+
+There was a generous round of applause.  Tracy tossed the scrap of
+paper across the table to Bell.  "Put it to music, before the next
+round-up, if you please."
+
+Bell nodded.  "I'll do my best."
+
+"We've got a club song and a club badge, and we ought to have a club
+motto," Josie said.
+
+"It's right to your hand, in your song," her brother answered.  "'It's
+a habit to be happy.'"
+
+"Good!" Pauline seconded him, and the motto was at once adopted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SNAP-SHOTS
+
+Bell Ward set the new song to music, a light, catchy tune, easy to pick
+up.  It took immediately, the boys whistled it, as they came and went,
+and the girls hummed it.  Patience, with cheerful impartiality, did
+both, in season and out of season.
+
+It certainly looked as though it were getting to be a habit to be happy
+among a good many persons in Winton that summer.  The spirit of the new
+club seemed in the very atmosphere.
+
+A rivalry, keen but generous, sprang up between the club members in the
+matter of discovering new ways of "Seeing Winton," or, failing that, of
+giving a new touch to the old familiar ones.
+
+There were many informal and unexpected outings, besides the club's
+regular ones, sometimes amongst all the members, often among two or
+three of them.
+
+Frequently, Shirley drove over in the surrey, and she and Pauline and
+Hilary, with sometimes one of the other girls, would go for long
+rambling drives along the quiet country roads, or out beside the lake.
+Shirley generally brought her sketch-book and there were pleasant
+stoppings here and there.
+
+And there were few days on which Bedelia and the trap were not out,
+Bedelia enjoying the brisk trots about the country quite as much as her
+companions.
+
+Hilary soon earned the title of "the kodak fiend," Josie declaring she
+took pictures in her sleep, and that "Have me; have my camera," was
+Hilary's present motto.  Certainly, the camera was in evidence at all
+the outings, and so far, Hilary had fewer failures to her account than
+most beginners.  Her "picture diary" she called the big scrap-book in
+which was mounted her record of the summer's doings.
+
+Those doings were proving both numerous and delightful.  Mr. Shaw, as
+an honorary member, had invited the club to a fishing party, which had
+been an immense success.  The doctor had followed it by a moonlight
+drive along the lake and across on the old sail ferry to the New York
+side, keeping strictly within that ten-mile-from-home limit, though
+covering considerably more than ten miles in the coming and going.
+
+There had been picnics of every description, to all the points of
+interest and charm in and about the village; an old-time supper at the
+Wards', at which the club members had appeared in old-fashioned
+costumes; a strawberry supper on the church lawn, to which all the
+church were invited, and which went off rather better than some of the
+sociables had in times past.
+
+As the Winton _Weekly News_ declared proudly, it was the gayest summer
+the village had known in years.  Mr. Paul Shaw's theory about
+developing home resources was proving a sound one in this instance at
+least.
+
+Hilary had long since forgotten that she had ever been an invalid, had
+indeed, sometimes, to be reminded of that fact.  She had quite
+discarded the little "company" fiction, except now and then, by way of
+a joke.  "Who'd want to be company?" she protested.  "I'd rather be one
+of the family these days."
+
+"That's all very well," Patience retorted, "when you're getting all the
+good of being both.  You've got the company room."  Patience had not
+found her summer quite as cloudless as some of her elders; being an
+honorary member had not meant _all_ of the fun in her case.  She wished
+very much that it were possible to grow up in a single night, thus
+wiping out forever that drawback of being "a little girl."
+
+Still, on the whole, she managed to get a fair share of the fun going
+on and quite agreed with the editor of the _Weekly News_, going so far
+as to tell him so when she met him down street.  She had a very kindly
+feeling in her heart for the pleasant spoken little editor; had he not
+given her her full honors every time she had had the joy of being
+"among those present"?
+
+There had been three of those checks from Uncle Paul; it was wonderful
+how far each had been made to go.  It was possible nowadays to send for
+a new book, when the reviews were more than especially tempting.  There
+had also been a tea-table added to the other attractions of the side
+porch, not an expensive affair, but the little Japanese cups and
+saucers were both pretty and delicate, as was the rest of the service;
+while Miranda's cream cookies and sponge cakes were, as Shirley
+declared, good enough to be framed.  Even the minister appeared now and
+then of an afternoon, during tea hour, and the young people, gathered
+on the porch, began to find him a very pleasant addition to their
+little company, he and they getting acquainted, as they had never
+gotten acquainted before.
+
+Sextoness Jane came every week now to help with the ironing, which
+meant greater freedom in the matter of wash dresses; and also, to
+Sextoness Jane herself, the certainty of a day's outing every week.  To
+Sextoness Jane, those Tuesdays at the parsonage were little short of a
+dissipation.  Miranda, unbending in the face of such sincere and humble
+admiration, was truly gracious.  The glimpses the little bent, old
+sextoness got of the young folks, the sense of life going on about her,
+were as good as a play, to quote her own simile, confided of an evening
+to Tobias, her great black cat, the only other inmate of the old
+cottage.
+
+"I reckon Uncle Paul would be rather surprised," Pauline said one
+evening, "if he could know all the queer sorts of ways in which we use
+his money.  But the little easings-up do count for so much."
+
+"Indeed they do," Hilary agreed warmly, "though it hasn't all gone for
+easings-ups, as you call them, either."  She had sat down right in the
+middle of getting ready for bed, to revel in her ribbon box; she so
+loved pretty ribbons!
+
+The committee on finances, as Pauline called her mother, Hilary, and
+herself, held frequent meetings.  "And there's always one thing," the
+girl would declare proudly, "the treasury is never entirely empty."
+
+She kept faithful account of all money received and spent; each month a
+certain amount was laid away for the "rainy day"--which meant, really,
+the time when the checks should cease to come---"for, you know, Uncle
+Paul only promised them for the _summer_," Pauline reminded the others,
+and herself, rather frequently.  Nor was all of the remainder ever
+quite used up before the coming of the next check.
+
+"You're quite a business woman, my dear," Mr. Shaw said once, smiling
+over the carefully recorded entries in the little account-book she
+showed him.  "We must have named you rightly."
+
+She wrote regularly to her uncle; her letters unconsciously growing
+more friendly and informal from week to week.  They were bright, vivid
+letters, more so than Pauline had any idea of.  Through them, Mr. Paul
+Shaw felt himself becoming very well acquainted with these young
+relatives whom he had never seen, and in whom, as the weeks went by, he
+felt himself growing more and more interested.
+
+Without realizing it, he got into the habit of looking forward to that
+weekly letter; the girl wrote a nice clear hand, there didn't seem to
+be any nonsense about her, and she had a way of going right to her
+point that was most satisfactory.  It seemed sometimes as if he could
+see the old white parsonage and ivy-covered church; the broad
+tree-shaded lawns; the outdoor parlor, with the young people gathered
+about the tea-table; Bedelia, picking her way along the quiet country
+roads; the great lake in all its moods; the manor house.
+
+Sometimes Pauline would enclose one or two of Hilary's snap-shots of
+places, or persons.  At one of these, taken the day of the fishing
+picnic, and under which Hilary had written "The best catch of the
+season," Mr. Paul Shaw looked long and intently.  Somehow he had never
+pictured Phil to himself as middle-aged.  If anyone had told him, when
+the lad was a boy, that the time would come when they would be like
+strangers to each other--Mr. Paul Shaw slipped the snap-shot and letter
+back into their envelope.
+
+It was that afternoon that he spent considerable time over a catalogue
+devoted entirely to sporting goods; and it was a fortnight later that
+Patience came flying down the garden path to where Pauline and Hilary
+were leaning over the fence, paying a morning call to Bedelia, sunning
+herself in the back pasture.
+
+"You'll never guess what's come _this_ time!  And Jed says he reckons
+he can haul it out this afternoon if you're set on it!  And it's
+addressed to the 'Misses Shaw,' so that means it's _mine, too_!"
+Patience dropped on the grass, quite out of breath.
+
+The "it" proved to be a row-boat with a double set of oar-locks, a
+perfect boat for the lake, strong and safe, but trig and neat of
+outline.
+
+Hilary named it the "Surprise" at first sight, and Tom was sent for at
+once to paint the name in red letters to look well against the white
+background and to match the boat's red trimmings.
+
+Its launching was an event.  Some of the young people had boats over at
+the lake, rather weather-beaten, tubby affairs, Bell declared them,
+after the coming of the "Surprise."  A general overhauling took place
+immediately, the girls adopted simple boating dresses--red and white,
+which were their boating colors.  A new zest was given to the water
+picnics, Bedelia learning to know the lake road very well.
+
+August had come before they fairly realized that their summer was more
+than well under way.  In little more than a month the long vacation
+would be over.  Tom and Josie were to go to Boston to school; Bell to
+Vergennes.
+
+"There'll never be another summer quite like it!" Hilary said one
+morning.  "I can't bear to think of its being over."
+
+"It isn't--yet," Pauline answered.
+
+"Tom's coming," Patience heralded from the gate, and Hilary ran indoors
+for hat and camera.
+
+"Where are you off to this morning?" Pauline asked, as her sister came
+out again.
+
+"Out by the Cross-roads' Meeting-House," Tom answered.  "Hilary has
+designs on it, I believe."
+
+"You'd better come, too, Paul," Hilary urged.  "It's a glorious morning
+for a walk."
+
+"I'm going to help mother cut out; perhaps I'll come to meet you with
+Bedelia 'long towards noon.  You wait at Meeting-House Hill."
+
+"_I'm_ not going to be busy this morning," Patience insinuated.
+
+"Oh, yes you are, young lady," Pauline told her.  "Mother said you were
+to weed the aster bed."
+
+Patience looked longingly after the two starting gayly off down the
+path, their cameras swung over their shoulders, then she looked
+disgustedly at the aster bed.  It was quite the biggest of the smaller
+beds.--She didn't see what people wanted to plant so many asters for;
+she had never cared much for asters, she felt she should care even less
+about them in the future.  Tiresome, stiff affairs!
+
+By the time Tom and Hilary reached the old Cross-Roads' Meeting-House
+that morning, after a long roundabout ramble, Hilary, for one, was
+quite willing to sit down and wait for Pauline and the trap, and eat
+the great, juicy blackberries Tom gathered for her from the bushes
+along the road.
+
+It had rained during the night and the air was crisp and fresh, with a
+hint of the coming fall.  "Summer's surely on the down grade," Tom
+said, throwing himself on the bank beside Hilary.
+
+"So Paul and I were lamenting this morning.  I don't suppose it matters
+as much to you folks who are going off to school."
+
+"Still it means another summer over," Tom said soberly.  He was rather
+sorry that it was so--there could never be another summer quite so
+jolly and carefree.  "And the breaking up of the club, I suppose?"
+
+"I don't see why we need call it a break--just a discontinuance, for a
+time."
+
+"And why that, even?  There'll be a lot of you left, to keep it going."
+
+"Y-yes, but with three, or perhaps more, out, I reckon we'll have to
+postpone the next installment until another summer."
+
+Tom went off then for more berries, and Hilary sat leaning back against
+the trunk of the big tree crowning the top of Meeting-House Hill, her
+eyes rather thoughtful.  From where she sat, she had a full view of
+both roads for some distance and, just beyond, the little hamlet
+scattered about the old meeting-house.
+
+Before the gate of one of the houses stood a familiar gig, and
+presently, as she sat watching, Dr. Brice came down the narrow
+flower-bordered path, followed by a woman.  At the gate both stopped;
+the woman was saying something, her anxious, drawn face seeming out of
+keeping with the cheery freshness of the morning and the flowers
+nodding their bright heads about her.
+
+As the doctor stood listening, his old shabby medicine case in his
+hand, with face bent to the troubled one raised to his, and bearing
+indicating grave sympathy and understanding, Hilary reached for her
+camera.
+
+"Upon my word!  Isn't the poor pater exempt?" Tom laughed, coming back.
+
+"I want it for the book Josie and I are making for you to take away
+with you, 'Winton Snap-shots.'  We'll call it 'The Country Doctor.'"
+
+Tom looked at the gig, moving slowly off down the road now.  He hated
+to say so, but he wished Hilary would not put that particular snap-shot
+in.  He had a foreboding that it was going to make him a bit
+uncomfortable--later--when the time for decision came; though, as for
+that, he had already decided--beyond thought of change.  He wished that
+the pater hadn't set his heart on his coming back here to practice--and
+he wished, too, that Hilary hadn't taken that photo.
+
+"Paul's late," he said presently.
+
+"I'm afraid she isn't coming."
+
+"It's past twelve," Tom glanced at the sun.  "Maybe we'd better walk on
+a bit."
+
+But they had walked a considerable bit, all the way to the parsonage,
+in fact, before they saw anything of Pauline.  There, she met them at
+the gate.  "Have you seen any trace of Patience--and Bedelia?" she
+asked eagerly.
+
+"Patience and Bedelia?" Hilary repeated wonderingly.
+
+"They're both missing, and it's pretty safe guessing they're together."
+
+"But Patience would never dare--"
+
+"Wouldn't she!" Pauline exclaimed.  "Jim brought Bedelia 'round about
+eleven and when I came out a few moments later, she was gone and so was
+Patience.  Jim's out looking for them.  We traced them as far as the
+Lake road."
+
+"I'll go hunt, too," Tom offered.  "Don't you worry, Paul; she'll turn
+up all right--couldn't down the Imp, if you tried."
+
+"But she's never driven Bedelia alone; and Bedelia's not Fanny."
+
+However, half an hour later, Patience drove calmly into the yard,
+Towser on the seat beside her, and if there was something very like
+anxiety in her glance, there was distinct triumph in the way she
+carried her small, bare head.
+
+"We've had a beautiful drive!" she announced, smiling pleasantly from
+her high seat, at the worried, indignant group on the porch.  "I tell
+you, there isn't any need to 'hi-yi' this horse!"
+
+"My sakes!" Miranda declared.  "Did you ever hear the beat of that!"
+
+"Get down, Patience!" Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience climbed obediently
+down.  She bore the prompt banishment to her own room which followed,
+with seeming indifference.  Certainly, it was not unexpected; but when
+Hilary brought her dinner up to her presently, she found her sitting on
+the floor, her head on the bed.  It was only a few days now to
+Shirley's turn and it was going to be such a nice turn.  Patience felt
+that for once Patience Shaw had certainly acted most unwisely.
+
+"Patty, how could you!" Hilary put the tray on the table and sitting
+down on the bed, took the tumbled head on her knee.  "We've been so
+worried!  You see, Bedelia isn't like Fanny!"
+
+"That's why I wanted to get a chance to drive her by myself for once!
+She went beautifully! out on the Lake road I just let her loose!"  For
+the moment, pride in her recent performance routed all contrition from
+Patience's voice--"I tell you, folks I passed just stared!"
+
+"Patience, how--"
+
+"I wasn't scared the least bit; and, of course, Bedelia knew it.  Uncle
+Jerry says they always know when you're scared, and if Mr. Allen is the
+most up in history of any man in Vermont, Uncle Jerry is the most in
+horses."
+
+Hilary felt that the conversation was hardly proceeding upon the lines
+her mother would have approved of, especially under present
+circumstances.  "That has nothing to do with it, you know, Patience,"
+she said, striving to be properly severe.
+
+"I think it has--everything.  I think it's nice not being scared of
+things.  You're sort of timid 'bout things, aren't you, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary made a movement to rise.
+
+"Oh, please," Patience begged.  "It's going to be such a dreadful long
+afternoon--all alone."
+
+"But I can't stay, mother would not want--"
+
+"Just for a minute.  I--I want to tell you something.  I--coming back,
+I met Jane, and I gave her a lift home--and she did love it so--she
+says she's never ridden before behind a horse that really went as if it
+enjoyed it as much as she did.  That was some good out of being bad,
+wasn't it?  And--I told you--ever'n' ever so long ago, that I was
+mighty sure Jane'd just be tickled to death to belong to our club.  I
+think you might ask her--I don't see why she shouldn't like Seeing
+Winton, same's we do--she doesn't ever have fun--and she'll be dead
+pretty soon.  She's getting along, Jane is--it'd make me mad's anything
+to have to die 'fore I'd had any fun to speak of.  Jane's really very
+good company--when you draw her out--she just needs drawing out--Jane
+does.  Seems to me, she remembers every funeral and wedding and
+everything--that's ever taken place in Winton."  Patience stopped,
+sheer out of breath, but there was an oddly serious look on her little
+eager face.
+
+Hilary stroked back the tangled red curls.  "Maybe you're right, Patty;
+maybe we have been selfish with our good times.  I'll have to go now,
+dear.  You--I may tell mother--that you are sorry--truly, Patty?"
+
+Patience nodded.  "But I reckon, it's a good deal on account of
+Shirley's turn," she explained.
+
+Hilary bit her lip.
+
+"You don't suppose you could fix that up with mother?  You're pretty
+good at fixing things up with mother, Hilary."
+
+"Since how long?" Hilary laughed, but when she had closed the door, she
+opened it again to stick her head in.  "I'll try, Patty, at any rate,"
+she promised.
+
+She went down-stairs rather thoughtful.  Mrs. Shaw was busy in the
+study and Pauline had gone out on an errand.  Hilary went up-stairs
+again, going to sit by one of the side windows in the "new room."
+
+Over at the church, Sextoness Jane was making ready for the regular
+weekly prayer meeting; never a service was held in the church that she
+did not set all in order.  Through one of the open windows, Hilary
+caught sight of the bunch of flowers on the reading-desk.  Jane had
+brought them with her from home.  Presently, the old woman herself came
+to the window to shake her dust-cloth, standing there a moment, leaning
+a little out, her eyes turned to the parsonage.  Pauline was coming up
+the path, Shirley and Bell were with her.  They were laughing and
+talking, the bright young voices making a pleasant break in the quiet
+of the garden.  It seemed to Hilary, as if she could catch the wistful
+look in Jane's faded eyes, a look only half consciously so, as if the
+old woman reached out vaguely for something that her own youth had been
+without and that only lately she had come to feel the lack of.
+
+A quick lump came into the girl's throat.  Life had seemed so bright
+and full of untried possibilities only that very morning, up there on
+Meeting-House Hill, with the wind in one's face; and then had come that
+woman, following the doctor down from the path.  Life was surely
+anything but bright for her this crisp August day--and now here was
+Jane.  And presently--at the moment it seemed very near indeed to
+Hilary--she and Paul and all of them would be old and, perhaps,
+unhappy.  And then it would be good to remember--that they had tried to
+share the fun and laughter of this summer of theirs with others.
+
+Hilary thought of the piece of old tapestry hanging on the studio wall
+over at the manor--of the interwoven threads--the dark as necessary to
+the pattern as the bright.  Perhaps they had need of Sextoness Jane, of
+the interweaving of her life into theirs--of the interweaving of all
+the village lives going on about them--quite as much as those more
+sober lives needed the brightening touch of theirs.
+
+"Hilary!  O Hilary!" Pauline called.
+
+"I'm coming," Hilary answered, and went slowly down to where the others
+were waiting on the porch.
+
+"Has anything happened?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I've been having a think--and I've come to the conclusion that we're a
+selfish, self-absorbed set."
+
+"Mother Shaw!" Pauline went to the study window, "please come out here.
+Hilary's calling us names, and that isn't polite."
+
+Mrs. Shaw came.  "I hope not very bad names," she said.
+
+Hilary swung slowly back and forth in the hammock.  "I didn't mean it
+that way--it's only--"  She told what Patience had said about Jane's
+joining the club, and then, rather reluctantly, a little of what she
+had been thinking.
+
+"I think Hilary's right," Shirley declared.  "Let's form a deputation
+and go right over and ask the poor old soul to join here and now."
+
+"I would never've thought of it," Bell said.  "But I don't suppose I've
+ever given Jane a thought, anyway."
+
+"Patty's mighty cute--for all she's such a terror at times," Pauline
+admitted.  "She knows a lot about the people here--and it's just
+because she's interested in them."
+
+"Come on," Shirley said, jumping up.  "We're going to have another
+honorary member."
+
+"I think it would be kind, girls," Mrs. Shaw said gravely.  "Jane will
+feel herself immensely flattered, and I know of no one who upholds the
+honor of Winton more honestly or persistently."
+
+"And please, Mrs. Shaw," Shirley coaxed, "when we come back, mayn't
+Patience Shaw, H. M., come down and have tea with us?"
+
+"I hardly think--"
+
+"Please, Mother Shaw," Hilary broke in; "after all--she started this,
+you know.  That sort of counterbalances the other, doesn't it?"
+
+"Well, we'll see," her mother laughed.
+
+Pauline ran to get one of the extra badges with which Shirley had
+provided her, and then the four girls went across to the church.
+
+Sextoness Jane was just locking the back door--not the least important
+part of the afternoon's duties with her--as they came through the
+opening in the hedge.  "Good afternoon," she said cheerily, "was you
+wanting to go inside?"
+
+"No," Pauline answered, "we came over to invite you to join our club.
+We thought, maybe, you'd like to?"
+
+"My Land!"  Jane stared from one to another of them.  "And wear one of
+them blue-ribbon affairs?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Shirley laughed.  "See, here it is," and she pointed to
+the one in Pauline's hand.
+
+Sextoness Jane came down the steps.  "Me, I ain't never wore a badge!
+Not once in all my life!  Oncet, when I was a little youngster, 'most
+like Patience, teacher, she got up some sort of May doings.  We was all
+to wear white dresses and red, white and blue ribbons--very night
+before, I come down with the mumps.  Looks like I always come down when
+I ought to've stayed up!"
+
+"But you won't come down with anything this time," Pauline pinned the
+blue badge on the waist of Jane's black and white calico.  "Now you're
+an honorary member of 'The S. W. F. Club.'"
+
+Jane passed a hand over it softly.  "My Land!" was all she could say.
+
+She was still stroking it softly as she walked slowly away towards
+home.  My, wouldn't Tobias be interested!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AT THE MANOR
+
+  "'All the names I know from nurse:
+    Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
+    Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
+    And the Lady Hollyhock,'"
+
+Patience chanted, moving slowly about the parsonage garden, hands full
+of flowers, and the big basket, lying on the grass beyond, almost full.
+
+Behind her, now running at full speed, now stopping suddenly, back
+lifted, tail erect, came Lucky, the black kitten from The Maples.
+Lucky had been an inmate of the parsonage for some weeks now and was
+thriving famously in her adopted home.  Towser tolerated her with the
+indifference due such a small, insignificant creature, and she
+alternately bullied and patronized Towser.
+
+"We haven't shepherd's purse, nor lady's smock, that I know of, Lucky,"
+Patience said, glancing back at the kitten, at that moment threatening
+battle at a polite nodding Sweet William, "but you can see for yourself
+that we have hollyhocks, while as for bachelor's buttons!  Just look at
+that big, blue bunch in one corner of the basket."
+
+It was the morning of the day of Shirley's turn and Pauline was
+hurrying to get ready to go over and help decorate the manor.  She was
+singing, too; from the open windows of the "new room" came the words--
+
+  "'A cheerful world?--It surely is
+    And if you understand your biz
+    You'll taboo the worry worm,
+    And cultivate the happy germ.'"
+
+To which piece of good advice, Patience promptly whistled back the gay
+refrain.
+
+On the back porch, Sextoness Jane--called in for an extra half-day--was
+ironing the white dresses to be worn that afternoon.  And presently,
+Patience, her basket quite full and stowed away in the trap waiting
+before the side door, strolled around to interview her.
+
+"I suppose you're going this afternoon?" she asked.
+
+Jane looked up from waxing her iron.  "Well, I was sort of calculating
+on going over for a bit; Miss Shirley having laid particular stress on
+my coming and this being the first reg'lar doings since I joined the
+club.  I told her and Pauline they mustn't look for me to go junketing
+'round with them all the while, seeing I'm in office--so to speak--and
+my time pretty well taken up with my work.  I reckon you're going?"
+
+"I--"  Patience edged nearer the porch.  Behind Jane stood the tall
+clothes-horse, with its burden of freshly ironed white things.  At
+sight of a short, white frock, very crisp and immaculate, the blood
+rushed to the child's face, then as quickly receded.--After all, it
+would have had to be ironed for Sunday and--well, mother certainly had
+been very non-committal the past few days--ever since that escapade
+with Bedelia, in fact--regarding her youngest daughter's hopes and
+fears for this all-important afternoon.  And Patience had been wise
+enough not to press the matter.
+
+"But, oh, I do wonder if Hilary has--"  Patience went back to the side
+porch.  Hilary was there talking to Bedelia.  "You--you have fixed it
+up?" the child inquired anxiously.
+
+Hilary looked gravely unconscious.  "Fixed it up?" she repeated.
+
+"About this afternoon--with mother?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  Mother's going; so is father."
+
+Patience repressed a sudden desire to stamp her foot, and Hilary,
+seeing the real doubt and longing in her face, relented.  "Mother wants
+to see you, Patty.  I rather think there are to be conditions."
+
+Patience darted off.  From the doorway, she looked back--"I just knew
+you wouldn't go back on me, Hilary!  I'll love you forever'n' ever."
+
+Pauline came out a moment later, drawing on her driving gloves.  "I
+feel like a story-book girl, going driving this time in the morning, in
+a trap like this.  I wish you were coming, too, Hilary."
+
+"Oh, I'm like the delicate story-book girl, who has to rest, so as to
+be ready for the dissipations that are to come later.  I look the part,
+don't I?"
+
+Pauline looked down into the laughing, sun-browned face.  "If Uncle
+Paul were to see you now, he might find it hard to believe I
+hadn't--exaggerated that time."
+
+"Well, it's your fault--and his, or was, in the beginning.  You've a
+fine basket of flowers to take; Patience has done herself proud this
+morning."
+
+"It's wonderful how well that young lady can behave--at times."
+
+"Oh, she's young yet!  When I hear mother tell how like her you used to
+be, I don't feel too discouraged about Patty."
+
+"That strikes me as rather a double-edged sort of speech," Pauline
+gathered up the reins.  "Good-by, and don't get too tired."
+
+Shirley's turn was to be a combination studio tea and lawn-party, to
+which all club members, both regular and honorary, not to mention their
+relatives and friends, had been bidden.  Following this, was to be a
+high tea for the regular members.
+
+"That's Senior's share," Shirley had explained to Pauline.  "He insists
+that it's up to him to do something."
+
+Mr. Dayre was on very good terms with the "S. W. F. Club."  As for
+Shirley, after the first, no one had ever thought of her as an outsider.
+
+It was hard now, Pauline thought, as she drove briskly along, the lake
+breeze in her face, and the sound of Bedelia's quick trotting forming a
+pleasant accompaniment to her, thoughts, very hard, to realize how soon
+the summer would be over.  But perhaps--as Hilary said--next summer
+would mean the taking up again of this year's good times and
+interests,--Shirley talked of coming back.  As for the winter--Pauline
+had in mind several plans for the winter.  Those of the club members to
+stay behind must get together some day and talk them over.  One thing
+was certain, the club motto must be lived up to bravely.  If not in one
+way, why in another.  There must be no slipping back into the old
+dreary rut and routine.  It lay with themselves as to what their winter
+should be.
+
+"And there's fine sleighing here, Bedelia," she said.  "We'll get the
+old cutter out and give it a coat of paint."
+
+Bedelia tossed her head, as if she heard in imagination the gay
+jingling of the sleighbells.
+
+"But, in the meantime, here is the manor," Pauline laughed, "and it's
+the prettiest August day that ever was, and lawn-parties and such
+festivities are afoot, not sleighing parties."
+
+The manor stood facing the lake with its back to the road, a broad
+sloping lawn surrounded it on three sides, with the garden at the back.
+
+For so many seasons, it had stood lonely and neglected, that Pauline
+never came near it now, without rejoicing afresh in its altered aspect.
+Even the sight of Betsy Todd's dish towels, drying on the currant
+bushes at one side of the back door, added their touch to the sense of
+pleasant, homely life that seemed to envelop the old house nowadays.
+
+Shirley came to the gate, as Pauline drew up, Phil, Pat and Pudgey in
+close attention.  "I have to keep an eye on them," she told Pauline.
+"They've just had their baths, and they're simply wild to get out in
+the middle of the road and roll.  I've told them no self-respecting dog
+would wish to come to a lawn-party in anything but the freshest of
+white coats, but I'm afraid they're not very self-respecting."
+
+"Patience is sure Towser's heart is heavy because he is not to come;
+she has promised him a lawn-party on his own account, and that no
+grown-ups shall be invited.  She's sent you the promised flowers, and
+hinted--more or less plainly--that she would have been quite willing to
+deliver them in person."
+
+"Why didn't you bring her?  Oh, but I'm afraid you've robbed yourself!"
+
+"Oh, no, we haven't.  Mother says, flowers grow with picking."
+
+"Come on around front," Shirley suggested.  "The boys have been putting
+the awning up."
+
+"The boys" were three of Mr. Dayre's fellow artists, who had come up a
+day or two before, on a visit to the manor.  One of them, at any rate,
+deserved Shirley's title.  He came forward now.  "Looks pretty nice,
+doesn't it?" he said, with a wave of the hand towards the red and white
+striped awning, placed at the further edge of the lawn.
+
+Shirley smiled her approval, and introduced him to Pauline, adding that
+Miss Shaw was the real founder of their club.
+
+"It's a might jolly sort of club, too," young Oram said.
+
+"That is exactly what it has turned out to be," Pauline laughed.  "Are
+the vases ready, Shirley?"
+
+Shirley brought the tray of empty flower vases out on the veranda, and
+sent Harry Oram for a bucket of fresh water.  "Harry is to make the
+salad," she explained to Pauline, as he came back.  "Before he leaves
+the manor he will have developed into a fairly useful member of
+society."
+
+"You've never eaten one of my salads, Miss Shaw," Harry said.  "When
+you have, you'll think all your previous life an empty dream."
+
+"It's much more likely her later life will prove a nightmare,--for a
+while, at least," Shirley declared.  "Still, Paul, Harry does make them
+rather well.  Betsy Todd, I am sorry to say, doesn't approve of him.
+But there are so many persons and things she doesn't approve of;
+lawn-parties among the latter."
+
+Pauline nodded sympathetically; she knew Betsy Todd of old.  Her wonder
+was, that the Dayres had been able to put up with her so long, and she
+said so.
+
+"'Hobson's choice,'" Shirley answered, with a little shrug.  "She isn't
+much like our old Thèrese at home, is she, Harry?  But nothing would
+tempt Thèrese away from her beloved New York.  'Vairmon!  Nevaire have
+I heard of zat place!' she told Harry, when he interviewed her for us.
+Senior's gone to Vergennes--on business thoughts intent, or I hope they
+are.  He's under strict orders not to 'discover a single bit' along the
+way, and to get back as quickly as possible."
+
+"You see how beautifully she has us all in training?" Harry said to
+Pauline.
+
+Pauline laughed.  Suddenly she looked up from her flowers with sobered
+face.  "I wonder," she said slowly, "if you know what it's meant to
+us--you're being here this summer, Shirley?  Sometimes things do fit in
+just right after all.  It's helped out wonderfully this summer, having
+you here and the manor open."
+
+"Pauline has a fairy-story uncle down in New York," Shirley turned to
+Harry.  "You've heard of him--Mr. Paul Shaw."
+
+"Well,--rather!  I've met him, once or twice--he didn't strike me as
+much of a believer in fairy tales."
+
+"He's made us believe in them," Pauline answered.
+
+"I think Senior might have provided me with such a delightful sort of
+uncle," Shirley observed.  "I told him so, but he says, while he's
+awfully sorry I didn't mention it before, he's afraid it's too late
+now."
+
+"Uncle Paul sent us Bedelia," Pauline told the rather perplexed-looking
+Harry, "and the row-boat and the camera and--oh, other things."
+
+"Because he wanted them to have a nice, jolly summer," Shirley
+explained.  "Pauline's sister had been sick and needed brightening up."
+
+"You don't think he's looking around for a nephew to adopt, do you?"
+Harry inquired.  "A well-intentioned, intelligent young man--with no
+end of talent."
+
+"For making salads," Shirley added with a sly smile.
+
+"Oh, well, you know," Harry remarked casually, "these are what Senior
+calls my 'salad days.'"
+
+Whereupon Shirley rose without a word, carrying off her vases of
+flowers.
+
+
+The party at the manor was, like all the club affairs, a decided
+success.  Never had the old place looked so gay and animated, since
+those far-off days of its early glory.
+
+The young people coming and going--the girls in their light dresses and
+bright ribbons made a pleasant place of the lawn, with its background
+of shining water.  The tennis court, at one side of the house, was one
+of the favorite gathering spots; there were one or two boats out on the
+lake.  The pleasant informality of the whole affair proved its greatest
+charm.
+
+Mr. Allen was there, pointing out to his host the supposed end of the
+subterranean passage said to connect the point on which the manor stood
+with the old ruined French fort over on the New York side.  The
+minister was having a quiet chat with the doctor, who had made a
+special point of being there.  Mothers of club members were exchanging
+notes and congratulating each other on the good comradeship and general
+air of contentment among the young people.  Sextoness Jane was there,
+in all the glory of her best dress--one of Mrs. Shaw's handed-down
+summer ones--and with any amount of items picked up to carry home to
+Tobias, who was certain to expect a full account of this most unusual
+dissipation on his mistress's part.  Even Betsy Todd condescended to
+put on her black woolen--usually reserved for church and funerals--and
+walk about among the other guests; but always, with an air that told
+plainly how little she approved of such goings on.  The Boyds were
+there, their badges in full evidence.  And last, though far from least,
+in her own estimation, Patience was there, very crisp and white and on
+her best behavior,--for, setting aside those conditions mother had seen
+fit to burden her with, was the delightful fact that Shirley had asked
+her to help serve tea.
+
+The principal tea-table was in the studio, though there was a second
+one, presided over by Pauline and Bell, out under the awning at the
+edge of the lawn.
+
+Patience thought the studio the very nicest room she had ever been in.
+It was long and low--in reality, the old dancing-hall, for the manor
+had been built after the pattern of its first owner's English home; and
+in the deep, recessed windows, facing the lake, many a bepatched and
+powdered little belle of Colonial days had coquetted across her fan
+with her bravely-clad partner.
+
+Mr. Dayre had thrown out an extra window at one end, at right angles to
+the great stone fireplace, banked to-day with golden rod, thereby
+securing the desired north light.
+
+On the easel, stood a nearly finished painting,--a sunny corner of the
+old manor kitchen, with Betsy Todd in lilac print gown, peeling apples
+by the open window, through which one caught a glimpse of the tall
+hollyhocks in the garden beyond.
+
+Before this portrait, Patience found Sextoness Jane standing in mute
+astonishment.
+
+"Betsy looks like she was just going to say--'take your hands out of
+the dish!' doesn't she?" Patience commented.  Betsy had once helped out
+at the parsonage, during a brief illness of Miranda's, and the young
+lady knew whereof she spoke.
+
+"I'd never've thought," Jane said slowly, "that anyone'd get that fond
+of Sister Todd--as to want a picture of her!"
+
+"Oh, it's because she's such a character, you know," Patience explained
+serenely.  Jane was so good about letting one explain things.  "'A
+perfect character,' I heard one of those artist men say so."
+
+Jane shook her head dubiously.  "Not what I'd call a 'perfect'
+character--not that I've got anything against Sister Todd; but she's
+too fond of finding out a body's faults."
+
+Patience went off then in search of empty tea-cups.  She was having a
+beautiful time; at present only one cloud overshadowed her horizon.
+Already some tiresome folks were beginning to think about going.  There
+was the talk of chores to be done, suppers to get, and with the
+breaking up, must come an end to her share in the party.  For mother,
+though approached in the most delicate fashion, had proved obdurate
+regarding the further festivity to follow.  Had mother been willing to
+consider the matter, Patience would have cheerfully undertaken to
+procure the necessary invitation.  Shirley was a very obliging girl.
+
+"And really, my dears," she said, addressing the three P's
+collectively, "it does seem a pity to have to go home before the fun's
+all over.  And I could manage it--Bob would take me out rowing--if I
+coaxed--he rows very slowly.  I don't suppose, for one moment, that we
+would get back in time.  I believe--"  For fully three minutes,
+Patience sat quite still in one of the studio window seats, oblivious
+of the chatter going on all about her; then into her blue eyes came a
+look not seen there very often--"No," she said sternly, shaking her
+head at Phil, much to his surprise, for he wasn't doing anything.
+"No--it wouldn't be _square_--and there would be the most awful to-do
+afterwards."
+
+When a moment or two later, Mrs. Shaw called to her to come, that
+father was waiting, Patience responded with a very good grace.  But Mr.
+Dayre caught the wistful look in the child's face.  "Bless me," he said
+heartily.  "You're not going to take Patience home with you, Mrs. Shaw?
+Let her stay for the tea--the young people won't keep late hours, I
+assure you."
+
+"But I think--" Mrs. Shaw began very soberly.
+
+"Sometimes, I find it quite as well not to think things over," Mr.
+Dayre suggested.  "Why, dear me, I'd quite counted on Patience's being
+here.  You see, I'm not a regular member, either; and I want someone to
+keep me in countenance."
+
+So presently, Hilary felt a hand slipped eagerly into hers.  "I'm
+staying!  I'm staying!" an excited little voice announced.  "And oh, I
+just love Mr. Dayre!"
+
+Then Patience went back to her window seat to play the delightful game
+of "making believe" she hadn't stayed.  She imagined that instead, she
+was sitting between father and mother in the gig, bubbling over with
+the desire to "hi-yi" at Fanny, picking her slow way along.
+
+The studio was empty, even the dogs were outside, speeding the parting
+guests with more zeal than discretion.  But after awhile Harry Oram
+strolled in.
+
+"I'm staying!" Patience announced.  She approved of Harry.  "You're an
+artist, too, aren't you?" she remarked.
+
+"So kind of you to say so," Harry murmured.  "I have heard grave doubts
+expressed on the subject by my too impartial friends."
+
+"I mean to be one when I grow up," Patience told him, "so's I can have
+a room like this--with just rugs on the floor; rugs slide so
+nicely--and window seats and things all cluttery."
+
+"May I come and have tea with you?  I'd like it awfully."
+
+"It'll be really tea--not pretend kind," Patience said.  "But I'll have
+that sort for any children who may come.  Hilary takes pictures--she
+doesn't make them though.  Made pictures are nicer, aren't they?"
+
+"Some of them."  Harry glanced through the open doorway, to where
+Hilary sat resting.  She was "making" a picture now, he thought to
+himself, in her white dress, under the big tree, her pretty hair
+forming a frame about her thoughtful face.  Taking a portfolio from a
+table near by, he went out to where Hilary sat.
+
+"Your small sister says you take pictures," he said, drawing a chair up
+beside hers, "so I thought perhaps you'd let me show you these--they
+were taken by a friend of mine."
+
+"Oh, but mine aren't anything like these!  These are beautiful!"
+Hilary bent over the photographs he handed her; marveling over their
+soft tones.  They were mostly bits of landscape, with here and there a
+water view and one or two fleecy cloud effects.  It hardly seemed as
+though they could be really photographs.
+
+"I've never done anything like these!" she said regretfully.  "I wish I
+could--there are some beautiful views about here that would make
+charming pictures."
+
+"She didn't in the beginning," Harry said, "She's lame; it was an
+accident, but she can never be quite well again, so she took this up,
+as an amusement at first, but now it's going to be her profession."
+
+Hilary bent over the photographs again.  "And you really think--anyone
+could learn to do it?"
+
+"No, not anyone; but I don't see why the right sort of person couldn't."
+
+"I wonder--if I could develop into the right sort."
+
+"May I come and see what you have done--and talk it over?" Harry asked.
+"Since this friend of mine took it up, I'm ever so interested in camera
+work."
+
+"Indeed you may," Hilary answered.  She had never thought of her camera
+holding such possibilities within it, of its growing into something
+better and more satisfying than a mere playmate of the moment.
+
+"Rested?" Pauline asked, coming up.  "Supper's nearly ready."
+
+"I wasn't very tired.  Paul, come and look at these."
+
+Supper was served on the lawn; the pleasantest, most informal, of
+affairs, the presence of the older members of the party serving to turn
+the gay give and take of the young folks into deeper and wider
+channels, and Shirley's frequent though involuntary--"Do you remember,
+Senior?" calling out more than one vivid bit of travel, of description
+of places, known to most of them only through books.
+
+Later, down on the lower end of the lawn, with the moon making a path
+of silver along the water, and the soft hush of the summer night over
+everything, Shirley brought out her guitar, singing for them strange
+folk-songs, picked up in her rambles with her father.  Afterwards, the
+whole party sang songs that they all knew, ending up at last with the
+club song.
+
+"'It's a habit to be happy,'" the fresh young voices chorused, sending
+the tune far out across the lake; and presently, from a boat on its
+further side, it was whistled back to them.
+
+"Who is it, I wonder?" Edna said,
+
+"Give it up," Tom answered.  "Someone who's heard it--there've been
+plenty of opportunities for folks to hear it."
+
+"Well it isn't a bad gospel to scatter broadcast," Bob remarked.
+
+"And maybe it's someone who doesn't live about here, and he will go
+away taking our tune with him, for other people to catch up," Hilary
+suggested.
+
+"But if he only has the tune and not the words," Josie objected, "what
+use will that be?"
+
+"The spirit of the words is in the tune," Pauline said.  "No one could
+whistle or sing it and stay grumpy."
+
+"They'd have to 'put the frown away awhile, and try a little sunny
+smile,' wouldn't they?" Patience observed.
+
+Patience had been a model of behavior all the evening.  Mother would be
+sure to ask if she had been good, when they got home.  That was one of
+those aggravating questions that only time could relieve her from.  No
+one ever asked Paul, or Hilary, that--when they'd been anywhere.
+
+As Mr. Dayre had promised, the party broke up early, going off in the
+various rigs they had come in.  Tom and Josie went in the trap with the
+Shaws.  "It's been perfectly lovely--all of it," Josie said, looking
+back along the road they were leaving.  "Every good time we have seems
+the best one yet."
+
+"You wait 'til my turn comes," Pauline told her.  "I've such a scheme
+in my head."
+
+"Am I in it?" Patience begged.  She was in front, between Tom, who was
+driving, and Hilary, then she leaned forward, they were nearly home,
+and the lights of the parsonage showed through the trees.  "There's a
+light in the parlor--there's company!"
+
+Pauline looked, too.  "And one up in our old room, Hilary.  Goodness,
+it must be a visiting minister!  I didn't know father was expecting
+anyone."
+
+"I bet you!" Patience jumped excitedly up and down.  "I just bet it
+isn't any visiting minister--but a visiting--uncle!  I feel it in my
+bones, as Miranda says."
+
+"Nonsense!" Pauline declared.
+
+"Maybe it isn't nonsense, Paul!" Hilary said.
+
+"I feel it in my bones," Patience repeated.  "I just _knew_ Uncle Paul
+would come up--a story-book uncle would be sure to."
+
+"Well, here we are," Tom laughed.  "You'll know for certain pretty
+quick."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE END OF SUMMER
+
+It was Uncle Paul, and perhaps no one
+was more surprised at his unexpected coming,
+than he himself.
+
+That snap-shot of Hilary's had considerable
+to do with it; bringing home to him the
+sudden realization of the passing of the years.
+For the first time, he had allowed himself to
+face the fact that it was some time now since
+he had crossed the summit of the hill, and that
+under present conditions, his old age promised
+to be a lonely, cheerless affair.
+
+He had never had much to do with young
+people; but, all at once, it seemed to him that
+it might prove worth his while to cultivate
+the closer acquaintance of these nieces of his.
+Pauline, in particular, struck him as likely to
+improve upon a nearer acquaintance.  And
+that afternoon, as he rode up Broadway, he
+found himself wondering how she would
+enjoy the ride; and all the sights and wonders
+of the great city.
+
+Later, over his solitary dinner, he suddenly
+decided to run up to Winton the next day.
+He would not wire them, he would rather like
+to take Phil by surprise.
+
+So he had arrived at the parsonage,
+driving up in Jed's solitary hack, and much plied
+with information, general and personal, on the
+way, just as the minister and his wife reached
+home from the manor.
+
+"And, oh, my!  Doesn't father look
+tickled to death!" Patience declared, coming
+in to her sisters' room that night, ostensibly
+to have an obstinate knot untied, but inwardly
+determined to make a third at the usual
+bedtime talk for that once, at least.  It wasn't
+often they all came up together.
+
+"He looks mighty glad," Pauline said.
+
+"And isn't it funny, bearing him called
+Phil?"  Patience curled herself up in the
+cozy corner.  "I never've thought of father
+as Phil."
+
+Hilary paused in the braiding of her long
+hair.  "I'm glad we've got to know him--Uncle
+Paul, I mean--through his letters, and
+all the lovely things he's done for us; else, I
+think I'd have been very much afraid of him."
+
+"So am I," Pauline assented.  "I see now
+what Mr. Oram meant--he doesn't look as if
+he believed much in fairy stories.  But I like
+his looks--he's so nice and tall and straight."
+
+"He used to have red hair, before it turned
+gray," Hilary said, "so that must be a family
+trait; your chin's like his, Paul, too,--so
+square and determined."
+
+"Is mine?" Patience demanded.
+
+"You cut to bed, youngster," Pauline
+commanded.  "You're losing all your beauty
+sleep; and really, you know--"
+
+Patience went to stand before the mirror.
+"Maybe I ain't--pretty--yet; but I'm going
+to be--some day.  Mr. Dayre says he likes
+red hair, I asked him.  He says for me not to
+worry; I'll have them all sitting up and taking notice yet."
+
+At which Pauline bore promptly down
+upon her, escorting her in person to the door
+of her own room.  "And you'd better get to
+bed pretty quickly, too, Hilary," she advised,
+coming back.  "You've had enough excitement for one day."
+
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw stayed a week; it was a
+busy week for the parsonage folk and for
+some other people besides.  Before it was
+over, the story-book uncle had come to know
+his nieces and Winton fairly thoroughly;
+while they, on their side, had grown very well
+acquainted with the tall, rather silent man,
+who had a fashion of suggesting the most
+delightful things to do in the most matter-of-fact manner.
+
+There were one or two trips decidedly
+outside that ten-mile limit, including an all day
+sail up the lake, stopping for the night at a
+hotel on the New York shore and returning
+by the next day's boat.  There was a visit to
+Vergennes, which took in a round of the shops,
+a concert, and another night away from home.
+
+"Was there ever such a week!" Hilary
+sighed blissfully one morning, as she and her
+uncle waited on the porch for Bedelia and
+the trap.  Hilary was to drive him over to
+The Maples for dinner.
+
+"Or such a summer altogether," Pauline
+added, from just inside the study window.
+
+"Then Winton has possibilities?" Mr. Shaw asked.
+
+"I should think it has; we ought to be
+eternally grateful to you for making us find
+them out," Pauline declared.
+
+Mr. Shaw smiled, more as if to himself.  "I
+daresay they're not all exhausted yet."
+
+"Perhaps," Hilary said slowly, "some
+places are like some people, the longer and
+better you know them, the more you keep
+finding out in them to like."
+
+"Father says," Pauline suggested, "that one
+finds, as a rule, what one is looking for."
+
+"Here we are," her uncle exclaimed, as
+Patience appeared, driving Bedelia.  "Do you
+know," he said, as he and Hilary turned out
+into the wide village street, "I haven't seen the
+schoolhouse yet?"
+
+"We can go around that way.  It isn't
+much of a building," Hilary answered.
+
+"I suppose it serves its purpose."
+
+"It is said to be a very good school for the
+size of the place."  Hilary turned Bedelia
+up the little by-road, leading to the old
+weather-beaten schoolhouse, standing back
+from the road in an open space of bare ground.
+
+"You and Pauline are through here?" her uncle asked.
+
+"Paul is.  I would've been this June, if I
+hadn't broken down last winter."
+
+"You will be able to go on this fall?"
+
+"Yes, indeed.  Dr. Brice said so the other
+day.  He says, if all his patients got on so
+well, by not following his advice, he'd have
+to shut up shop, but that, fortunately for
+him, they haven't all got a wise uncle down in
+New York, to offer counter-advice."
+
+"Each in his turn," Mr. Shaw remarked,
+adding, "and Pauline considers herself through school?"
+
+"I--I suppose so.  I know she would like
+to go on--but we've no higher school here and--She
+read last winter, quite a little, with
+father.  Pauline's ever so clever."
+
+"Supposing you both had an opportunity--for
+it must be both, or neither, I judge--and
+the powers that be consented--how about
+going away to school this winter?"
+
+Hilary dropped the reins.  "Oh!" she
+cried, "you mean--"
+
+"I have a trick of meaning what I say," her
+uncle said, smiling at her.
+
+"I wish I could say--what I want to--and
+can't find words for--" Hilary said.
+
+"We haven't consulted the higher authorities
+yet, you know."
+
+"And--Oh, I don't see how mother could
+get on without us, even if--"
+
+"Mothers have a knack at getting along
+without a good many things--when it means
+helping their young folks on a bit,"
+Mr. Shaw remarked.  "I'll have a talk with her
+and your father to-night."
+
+That evening, pacing up and down the
+front veranda with his brother, Mr. Shaw
+said, with his customary abruptness, "You
+seem to have fitted in here, Phil,--perhaps, you
+were in the right of it, after all.  I take it
+you haven't had such a hard time, in some ways."
+
+The minister did not answer immediately.
+Looking back nearly twenty years, he told
+himself, that he did not regret that early
+choice of his.  He had fitted into the life here;
+he and his people had grown together.  It had
+not always been smooth sailing and more than
+once, especially the past year or so, his
+narrow means had pressed him sorely, but on the
+whole, he had found his lines cast in a
+pleasant place, and was not disposed to rebel
+against his heritage.
+
+"Yes," he said, at last, "I have fitted in;
+too easily, perhaps.  I never was ambitious,
+you know."
+
+"Except in the accumulating of books," his
+brother suggested.
+
+The minister smiled.  "I have not been
+able to give unlimited rein even to that mild
+ambition.  Fortunately, the rarer the
+opportunity, the greater the pleasure it brings
+with it--and the old books never lose their charm."
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw flicked the ashes from his
+cigar.  "And the girls--you expect them to
+fit in, too?"
+
+"It is their home."  A note the elder
+brother knew of old sounded in the younger
+man's voice.
+
+"Don't mount your high horse just yet,
+Phil," he said.  "I'm not going to rub you up
+the wrong way--at least, I don't mean to; but
+you were always an uncommonly hard chap to
+handle--in some matters.  I grant you, it is
+their home and not a had sort of home for a
+girl to grow up in."  Mr. Shaw stood for a
+moment at the head of the steps, looking off
+down the peaceful, shadowy street.  It had
+been a pleasant week; he had enjoyed it
+wonderfully.  He meant to have many more such.
+But to live here always!  Already the city
+was calling to him; he was homesick for its
+rush and bustle, the sense of life and movement.
+
+"You and I stand as far apart to-day, in
+some matters, Phil, as we did twenty--thirty
+years ago," he said presently, "and that eldest
+daughter of yours--I'm a fair hand at reading
+character or I shouldn't be where I am to-day,
+if I were not--is more like me than you."
+
+"So I have come to think--lately."
+
+"That second girl takes after you; she
+would never have written that letter to me
+last May."
+
+"No, Hilary would not have at the time--"
+
+"Oh, I can guess how you felt about it at
+the time.  But, look here, Phil, you've got
+over that--surely?  After all, I like to think
+now that Pauline only hurried on the
+inevitable."  Mr. Paul Shaw laid his hand on the
+minister's shoulder.  "Nearly twenty years is
+a pretty big piece out of a lifetime.  I see now
+how much I have been losing all these years."
+
+"It has been a long time, Paul; and,
+perhaps, I have been to blame in not trying more
+persistently to heal the breach between us.  I
+assure you that I have regretted it daily."
+
+"You always did have a lot more pride in
+your make-up than a man of your profession
+has any right to allow himself, Phil.  But if
+you like, I'm prepared to point out to you
+right now how you can make it up to me.
+Here comes Lady Shaw and we won't
+waste time getting to business."
+
+That night, as Pauline and Hilary were in
+their own room, busily discussing, for by no
+means the first time that day, what Uncle Paul
+had said to Hilary that morning, and just
+how he had looked, when he said it, and was
+it at all possible that father would consent,
+and so on, _ad libitum_, their mother tapped at the door.
+
+Pauline ran to open it.  "Good news, or
+not?" she demanded.  "Yes, or no, Mother Shaw?"
+
+"That is how you take it," Mrs. Shaw
+answered.  She was glad, very glad, that this
+unforeseen opportunity should be given her
+daughters; and yet--it meant the first break
+in the home circle, the first leaving home for them.
+
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw left the next morning.
+"I'll try and run up for a day or two, before
+the girls go to school," he promised his
+sister-in-law.  "Let me know, as soon as you have
+decided _where_ to send them."
+
+Patience was divided in her opinion, as to
+this new plan.  It would be lonesome without
+Paul and Hilary; but then, for the time
+being, she would be, to all intents and purposes,
+"Miss Shaw."  Also, Bedelia was not going
+to boarding-school--on the whole, the
+arrangement had its advantages.  Of course,
+later, she would have her turn at school--Patience
+meant to devote a good deal of her
+winter's reading to boarding-school stories.
+
+She told Sextoness Jane so, when that
+person appeared, just before supper time.
+
+Jane looked impressed.  "A lot of things
+keep happening to you folks right along," she
+observed.  "Nothing's ever happened to me,
+'cept mumps--and things of that sort; you
+wouldn't call them interesting.  The girls to home?"
+
+"They're 'round on the porch, looking at
+some photos Mr. Oram's brought over; and
+he's looking at Hilary's.  Hilary's going in
+for some other kind of picture taking.  I wish
+she'd leave her camera home, when she goes to
+school.  Do you want to speak to them about
+anything particular?"
+
+"I'll wait a bit," Jane sat down on the
+garden-bench beside Patience.
+
+"There, he's gone!" the latter said, as the
+front gate clicked a few moments later.  "O
+Paul!" she called, "You're wanted, Paul!"
+
+"You and Hilary going to be busy
+tonight?" Jane asked, as Pauline came across
+the lawn.
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"I ain't," Patience remarked.
+
+"Well," Jane said, "it ain't prayer-meeting
+night, and it ain't young peoples' night and it
+ain't choir practice night, so I thought maybe
+you'd like me to take my turn at showing you
+something.  Not all the club--like's not they
+wouldn't care for it, but if you think they
+would, why, you can show it to them sometime."
+
+"Just we three then?" Pauline asked.
+"Hilary and I can go."
+
+"So can I--if you tell mother you want me
+to," Patience put in.
+
+"Is it far?" her sister questioned Jane.
+
+"A good two miles--we'd best walk--we
+can rest after we get there.  Maybe, if you
+like, you'd better ask Tom and Josie.  Your
+ma'll be better satisfied if he goes along, I
+reckon.  I'll come for you at about half-past
+seven."
+
+"All right, thank you ever so much," Pauline
+said, and went to tell Hilary, closely
+pursued by Patience.  However, Mrs. Shaw
+vetoed Pauline's proposition that Patience
+should make one of the party.
+
+"Not every time, my dear," she explained.
+
+Promptly at half-past seven Jane
+appeared.  "All ready?" she said, as the four
+young people came to meet her.  "You don't
+want to go expecting anything out of the
+common.  Like's not, you've all seen it a heap
+of times, but maybe not to take particular
+notice of it."
+
+She led the way through the garden to the
+lane running past her cottage, where Tobias
+sat in solitary dignity on the doorstep, down
+the lane to where it merged in to what was
+nothing more than a field path.
+
+"Are we going to the lake?" Hilary asked.
+
+Jane nodded.
+
+"But not out on the water," Josie said.
+"You're taking us too far below the pier for that."
+
+Jane smiled quietly.  "It'll be on the water--what
+you're going to see," she was getting
+a good deal of pleasure out of her small
+mystery, and when they reached the low shore,
+fringed with the tall sea-grass, she took her
+party a few steps along it to where an old log
+lay a little back from the water.  "I reckon
+we'll have to wait a bit," she said, "but it'll
+be 'long directly."
+
+They sat down in a row, the young people
+rather mystified.  Apparently the broad
+expanse of almost motionless water was quite
+deserted.  There was a light breeze blowing
+and the soft swishing of the tiny waves against
+the bank was the only sound to break the
+stillness; the sky above the long irregular range
+of mountains on the New York side, still wore
+its sunset colors, the lake below sending hack
+a faint reflection of them.
+
+But presently these faded until only the
+afterglow was left, to merge in turn into the
+soft summer twilight, through which the stars
+began to glimpse, one by one.
+
+The little group had been mostly silent,
+each busy with his or her thoughts; so far as
+the young people were concerned, happy
+thoughts enough; for if the closing of each
+day brought their summer nearer to its
+ending, the fall would bring with it new
+experiences, an entering of new scenes.
+
+"There!"  Sextoness Jane broke the silence,
+pointing up the lake, to where a tiny point of
+red showed like a low-hung star through the
+gathering darkness.  Moment by moment,
+other lights came into view, silently, steadily,
+until it seemed like some long, gliding
+sea-serpent, creeping down towards them through
+the night.
+
+"A tow!" Josie cried under her breath.
+
+They had all seen it, times without number,
+before.  The long line of canal boats being
+towed down the lake to the canal below; the
+red lanterns at either end of each boat
+showing as they came.  But to-night, infected
+perhaps, by the pride, the evident delight, in
+Jane's voice, the old familiar sight held them
+with the new interest the past months had
+brought to bear upon so many old, familiar things.
+
+"It is--wonderful," Pauline said at last.
+"It might be a scene from--fairyland, almost."
+
+"Me--I love to see them come stealing long
+like that through the dark," Jane said slowly
+and a little hesitatingly.  It was odd to be
+telling confidences to anyone except Tobias.
+"I don't know where they come from, nor
+where they're a-going to.  Many's the night
+I walk over here just on the chance of seeing
+one.  Mostly, this time of year, you're pretty
+likely to catch one.  When I was younger, I
+used to sit and fancy myself going aboard on
+one of them and setting off for strange parts.
+I wasn't looking to settle down here in Winton
+all my days; but I reckon, maybe, it's just's
+well--anyhow, when I got the freedom to
+travel, I'd got out of the notion of it--and
+perhaps, there's no telling, I might have been
+terribly disappointed.  And there ain't any
+hindrance 'gainst my setting off--in my own
+mind--every time I sits here and watches a
+tow go down the lake.  I've seen a heap of
+big churches in my travels--it's mostly easier
+'magining about them--churches are pretty
+much alike I reckon, though I ain't seen many, I'll admit."
+
+No one answered for a moment, but Jane,
+used to Tobias for a listener, did not mind.
+Then in the darkness, Hilary laid a hand
+softly over the work-worn ones clasped on
+Jane's lap.  It was hard to imagine Jane
+young and full of youthful fancies and
+longings; yet years ago there had been a Jane--not
+Sextoness Jane then--who had found
+Winton dull and dreary and had longed to get
+away.  But for her, there had been no one to
+wave the magic wand, that should transform
+the little Vermont village into a place filled
+with new and unexplored charms.  Never in
+all Jane's many summers, had she known one
+like this summer of theirs; and for them--the
+wonder was by no means over--the years
+ahead were bright with untold possibilities.
+Hilary sighed for very happiness, wondering
+if she were the same girl who had rocked
+listlessly in the hammock that June morning,
+protesting that she didn't care for "half-way" things.
+
+"Tired?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I was thinking," her sister answered.
+
+"Well, the tow's gone."  Jane got up to go.
+
+"I'm ever so glad we came, thank you so
+much, Jane," Pauline said heartily.
+
+"I wonder what'll have happened by the
+time we all see our next tow go down," Josie
+said, as they started towards home.
+
+"We may see a good many more than one
+before the general exodus," her brother answered.
+
+"But we won't have time to come watch for
+them.  Oh, Paul, just think, only a little
+while now--"
+
+Tom slipped into step with Hilary, a little
+behind the others.  "I never supposed the old
+soul had it in her," he said, glancing to where
+Jane trudged heavily on ahead.  "Still, I
+suppose she was young--once; though I've never
+thought of her being so before."
+
+"Yes," Hilary said.  "I wonder,--maybe,
+she's been better off, after all, right, here at
+home.  She wouldn't have got to be
+Sextoness Jane anywhere else, probably."
+
+Tom glanced at her quickly.  "Is there a
+hidden meaning--subject to be carefully avoided?"
+
+Hilary laughed.  "As you like."
+
+"So you and Paul are off on your travels, too?"
+
+"Yes, though I can hardly believe it yet."
+
+"And just as glad to go as any of us."
+
+"Oh, but we're coming back--after we've
+been taught all manner of necessary things."
+
+"Edna'll be the only one of you girls left
+behind; it's rough on her."
+
+"It certainly is; we'll all have to write her
+heaps of letters."
+
+"Much time there'll be for letter-writing,
+outside of the home ones," Tom said.
+
+"Speaking of time," Josie turned towards
+them, "we're going to be busier than any bee
+ever dreamed of being, before or since Dr. Watts."
+
+They certainly were busy days that
+followed.  So many of the young folks were
+going off that fall that a good many of the
+meetings of "The S. W. F. Club" resolved
+themselves into sewing-bees, for the girl members only.
+
+"If we'd known how jolly they were, we'd
+have tried them before," Bell declared one
+morning, dropping down on the rug Pauline
+had spread under the trees at one end of the
+parsonage lawn.
+
+Patience, pulling bastings with a business-like
+air, nodded her curly head wisely.  "Miranda says,
+folks mostly get 'round to enjoying
+their blessings 'bout the time they come to lose them."
+
+"Has the all-important question been
+settled yet, Paul?" Edna asked, looking up from
+her work.  She might not be going away to
+school, but even so, that did not debar one
+from new fall clothes at home.
+
+"They're coming to Vergennes with me,"
+Bell said.  "Then we can all come home
+together Friday nights."
+
+"They're coming to Boston with me," Josie
+corrected, "then we'll be back together for
+Thanksgiving."
+
+Shirley, meekly taking her first sewing
+lessons under Pauline's instructions, and frankly
+declaring that she didn't at all like them,
+dropped the hem she was turning.  "They're
+coming to New York with me; and in the
+between-times we'll have such fun that they'll
+never want to come home."
+
+Pauline laughed.  "It looks as though
+Hilary and I would have a busy winter
+between you all.  It is a comfort to know where
+we are going."
+
+"Remember!" she warned, when later the
+party broke up.  "Four o'clock Friday afternoon!  Sharp!"
+
+"Are we going out in a blaze of glory?"
+Bell questioned.
+
+"You might tell us where we are going,
+now, Paul," Josie urged.
+
+Pauline shook her head.  "You wait until
+Friday, like good little girls.  Mind, you all
+bring wraps; it'll be chilly coming home."
+
+Pauline's turn was to be the final wind-up
+of the club's regular outings.  No one outside
+the home folks, excepting Tom, had been
+taken into her confidence--it had been
+necessary to press him into service.  And when, on
+Friday afternoon, the young people gathered
+at the parsonage, all but those named were
+still in the dark.
+
+Besides the regular members, Mrs. Shaw,
+Mr. Dayre, Mr. Allen, Harry Oram and Patience
+were there; the minister and Dr. Brice
+had promised to join the party later if possible.
+
+As a rule, the club picnics were cooperative
+affairs; but to-day the members, by special
+request, arrived empty-handed.  Mr. Paul
+Shaw, learning that Pauline's turn was yet to
+come, had insisted on having a share in it.
+
+"I am greatly interested in this club," he
+had explained.  "I like results, and I think,"
+he glanced at Hilary's bright happy face,
+"that the 'S. W. F. Club' has achieved at least
+one very good result."
+
+And on the morning before the eventful
+Friday, a hamper had arrived from New
+York, the watching of the unpacking of which
+had again transformed Patience, for the time,
+from an interrogation to an exclamation point.
+
+"It's a beautiful hamper," she explained to
+Towser.  "It truly is--because father says,
+it's the inner, not the outer, self that makes
+for real beauty, or ugliness; and it certainly
+was the inside of that hamper that counted.
+I wish you were going, Towser.  See here,
+suppose you follow on kind of quietly
+to-morrow afternoon--don't show up too soon, and
+I guess I can manage it."
+
+Which piece of advice Towser must have
+understood.  At any rate, he acted upon it to
+the best of his ability, following the party at a
+discreet distance through the garden and down
+the road towards the lake; and only when the
+halt at the pier came, did he venture near, the
+most insinuating of dogs.
+
+And so successfully did Patience manage
+it, that when the last boat-load pushed off
+from shore, Towser sat erect on the narrow
+bow seat, blandly surveying his fellow
+voyagers.  "He does so love picnics," Patience
+explained to Mr. Dayre, "and this is
+the last particular one for the season.  I kind
+of thought he'd go along and I slipped in a
+little paper of bones."
+
+From the boat ahead came the chorus.
+"We're out on the wide ocean sailing."
+
+"Not much!" Bob declared.  "I wish we
+were--the water's quiet as a mill-pond this afternoon."
+
+For the great lake, appreciating perhaps
+the importance of the occasion, had of its many
+moods chosen to wear this afternoon its
+sweetest, most beguiling one, and lay, a broad
+stretch of sparkling, rippling water, between
+its curving shores.
+
+Beyond, the range of mountains rose dark
+and somber against the cloud-flecked sky,
+their tops softened by the light haze that told
+of coming autumn.
+
+And presently, from boat to boat, went the
+call, "We're going to Port Edward!  Why
+didn't we guess?"
+
+"But that's not _in_ Winton," Edna protested.
+
+"Of it, if not in it," Jack Ward assured them.
+
+"Do you reckon you can show us anything
+new about that old fort, Paul Shaw?" Tracy
+demanded.  "Why, I could go all over it
+blindfolded."
+
+"Not to show the new--to unfold the old,"
+Pauline told him.
+
+"That sounds like a quotation."
+
+"It is--in substance," Pauline looked across
+her shoulder to where Mr. Allen sat,
+imparting information to Harry Oram.
+
+"So that's why you asked the old fellow,"
+Tracy said.  "Was that kind?"
+
+They were rounding the slender point on
+which the tall, white lighthouse stood, and
+entering the little cove where visitors to the fort
+usually beached their boats.
+
+A few rods farther inland, rose the tall,
+grass-covered, circular embankment,
+surrounding the crumbling, gray walls, the outer
+shells of the old barracks.
+
+At the entrance to the enclosure, Tom
+suddenly stepped ahead, barring the way.  "No
+passing within this fort without the
+counter-sign," he declared.  "Martial law, this afternoon."
+
+It was Bell who discovered it.  "'It's a
+habit to be happy,'" she suggested, and Tom
+drew back for her to enter.  But one by one,
+he exacted the password from each.
+
+Inside, within the shade of those old, gray
+walls, a camp-fire had been built and
+camp-kettle swung, hammocks had been hung under
+the trees and when cushions were scattered
+here and there the one-time fort bore anything
+but a martial air.
+
+But something of the spirit of the past must
+have been in the air that afternoon, or perhaps,
+the spirit of the coming changes; for this
+picnic--though by no means lacking in charm--was
+not as gay and filled with light-hearted
+chaff as usual.  There was more talking in
+quiet groups, or really serious searching for
+some trace of those long-ago days of storm and stress.
+
+With the coming of evening, the fire was
+lighted and the cloth laid within range of its
+flickering shadows.  The night breeze had
+sprung up and from outside the sloping
+embankment they caught the sound of the waves
+breaking on the beach.  True to their
+promise, the minister and Dr. Brice appeared at
+the time appointed and were eagerly welcomed
+by the young people.
+
+Supper was a long, delightful affair that
+night, with much talk of the days when the
+fort had been devoted to far other purposes
+than the present; and the young people,
+listening to the tales Mr. Allen told in his quiet yet
+strangely vivid way, seemed to hear the slow
+creeping on of the boats outside and to be
+listening in the pauses of the wind for the
+approach of the enemy.
+
+"I'll take it back, Paul," Tracy told her, as
+they were repacking the baskets.  "Even the
+old fort has developed new interests."
+
+"And next summer the 'S. W. F. Club' will
+continue its good work," Jack said.
+
+Going back, Pauline found herself sitting
+in the stern of one of the boats, beside her
+father.  The club members were singing the
+club song.  But Pauline's thoughts had
+suddenly gone back to that wet May afternoon.
+
+She could see the dreary, rain-swept garden,
+hear the beating of the drops on the
+window-panes.  How long ago and remote it all
+seemed; how far from the hopeless discontent,
+the vague longings, the real anxiety of that
+time, she and Hilary had traveled.  She
+looked up impulsively.  "There's one thing,"
+she said, "we've had one summer that I shall
+always feel would be worth reliving.  And
+we're going to have more of them."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," Mr. Shaw said.
+
+Pauline looked about her--the lanterns at
+the ends of the boats threw dancing lights out
+across the water, no longer quiet; overhead,
+the sky was bright with stars.  "Everything
+is so beautiful," the girl said slowly.  "One
+seems to feel it more--every day."
+
+"'The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the
+Lord hath made even both of them,'" her
+father quoted gravely.
+
+Pauline drew a quick breath.  "The
+hearing ear and the seeing eye"--it was a good
+thought to take with them--out into the new
+life, among the new scenes.  One would need
+them everywhere--out in the world, as well as
+in Winton.  And then, from the boat just
+ahead, sounded Patience's clear
+treble,--"'There's a Good Time Coming.'"
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE S. W. F. CLUB***
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diff --git a/15562-8.zip b/15562-8.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The S. W. F. Club, by Caroline E. Jacobs
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The S. W. F. Club
+
+
+Author: Caroline E. Jacobs
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2005  [eBook #15562]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE S. W. F. CLUB***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+THE S. W. F. CLUB
+
+by
+
+CAROLINE E. JACOBS
+
+Author of _Joan of Jupiter Inn_, _Joan's Jolly Vacation_,
+_Patricia_, etc.
+
+The Goldsmith Publishing Co.
+Cleveland, Ohio
+George W. Jacobs & Company
+
+1912
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I  PAULINE'S FLAG
+   II  THE MAPLES
+  III  UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER
+   IV  BEGINNINGS
+    V  BEDELIA
+   VI  PERSONALLY CONDUCTED
+  VII  HILARY'S TURN
+ VIII  SNAP-SHOTS
+   IX  AT THE MANOR
+    X  THE END OF SUMMER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PAULINE'S FLAG
+
+Pauline dropped the napkin she was hemming and, leaning back in her
+chair, stared soberly down into the rain-swept garden.
+
+Overhead, Patience was having a "clarin' up scrape" in her particular
+corner of the big garret, to the tune of "There's a Good Time Coming."
+
+Pauline drew a quick breath; probably, there was a good time
+coming--any number of them--only they were not coming her way; they
+would go right by on the main road, they always did.
+
+"'There's a good time coming,'" Patience insisted shrilly, "'Help it
+on!  Help it on!'"
+
+Pauline drew another quick breath.  She would help them on!  If they
+would none of them stop on their own account, they must be flagged.
+And--yes, she would do it--right now.
+
+Getting up, she brought her writing-portfolio from the closet, clearing
+a place for it on the little table before the window.  Then her eyes
+went back to the dreary, rain-soaked garden.  How did one begin a
+letter to an uncle one had never seen; and of whom one meant to ask a
+great favor?
+
+But at last, after more than one false start, the letter got itself
+written, after a fashion.
+
+Pauline read it over to herself, a little dissatisfied pucker between
+her brows:--
+
+
+_Mr. Paul Almy Shaw,
+  New York City, New York_.
+
+MY DEAR UNCLE PAUL:  First, I should like you to understand that
+neither father nor mother know that I am writing this letter to you;
+and that if they did, I think they would forbid it; and I should like
+you to believe, too, that if it were not for Hilary I should not dream
+of writing it.  You know so little about us, that perhaps you do not
+remember which of us Hilary is.  She comes next to me, and is just
+thirteen.  She hasn't been well for a long time, not since she had to
+leave school last winter, and the doctor says that what she needs is a
+thorough change.  Mother and I have talked it over and over, but we
+simply can't manage it.  I would try to earn some money, but I haven't
+a single accomplishment; besides I don't see how I could leave home,
+and anyway it would take so long, and Hilary needs a change now.  And
+so I am writing to ask you to please help us out a little.  I do hope
+you won't be angry at my asking; and I hope very, very much, that you
+will answer favorably.
+
+    I remain,
+        Very respectfully,
+            PAULINE ALMY SHAW.
+WINTON, VT., May Sixteenth.
+
+
+Pauline laughed rather nervously as she slipped her letter into an
+envelope and addressed it.  It wasn't a very big flag, but perhaps it
+would serve her purpose.
+
+Tucking the letter into her blouse, Pauline ran down-stairs to the
+sitting-room, where her mother and Hilary were.  "I'm going down to the
+post-office, mother," she said; "any errands?"
+
+"My dear, in this rain?"
+
+"There won't be any mail for us, Paul," Hilary said, glancing
+listlessly up from the book she was trying to read; "you'll only get
+all wet and uncomfortable for nothing."
+
+Pauline's gray eyes were dancing; "No," she agreed, "I don't suppose
+there will be any mail for us--to-day; but I want a walk.  It won't
+hurt me, mother.  I love to be out in the rain."
+
+And all the way down the slippery village street the girl's eyes
+continued to dance with excitement.  It was so much to have actually
+started her ball rolling; and, at the moment, it seemed that Uncle Paul
+must send it bounding back in the promptest and most delightful of
+letters.  He had never married, and somewhere down at the bottom of his
+apparently crusty, old heart he must have kept a soft spot for the
+children of his only brother.
+
+Thus Pauline's imagination ran on, until near the post-office she met
+her father.  The whole family had just finished a tour of the West in
+Mr. Paul Shaw's private car--of course, he must have a private car,
+wasn't he a big railroad man?--and Pauline had come back to Winton long
+enough to gather up her skirts a little more firmly when she saw Mr.
+Shaw struggling up the hill against the wind.
+
+"Pauline!" he stopped, straightening his tall, scholarly figure.  "What
+brought you out in such a storm?"
+
+With a sudden feeling of uneasiness, Pauline wondered what he would say
+if she were to explain exactly what it was that had brought her out.
+With an impulse towards at least a half-confession, she said hurriedly,
+"I wanted to post a letter I'd just written; I'll be home almost as
+soon as you are, father."
+
+Then she ran on down the street.  All at once she felt her courage
+weakening; unless she got her letter posted immediately she felt she
+should end by tearing it up.
+
+When it had slipped from her sight through the narrow slit labeled
+"LETTERS," she stood a moment, almost wishing it were possible to get
+it back again.
+
+She went home rather slowly.  Should she confess at once, or wait until
+Uncle Paul's answer came?  It should be here inside of a week, surely;
+and if it were favorable--and, oh, it must be favorable--would not that
+in itself seem to justify her in what she had done?
+
+On the front piazza, Patience was waiting for her, a look of mischief
+in her blue eyes.  Patience was ten, a red-haired, freckled slip of a
+girl.  She danced about Pauline now.  "Why didn't you tell me you were
+going out so I could've gone, too?  And what have you been up to, Paul
+Shaw?  Something!  You needn't tell me you haven't."
+
+"I'm not going to tell you anything," Pauline answered, going on into
+the house.  The study door was half open, and when she had taken off
+her things, Pauline stood a moment a little uncertainly outside it.
+Then suddenly, much to her small sister's disgust, she went in, closing
+the door behind her.
+
+Mr. Shaw was leaning back in his big chair at one corner of the
+fireplace.  "Well," he asked, looking up, "did you get your letter in
+in time, my dear?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't the time."  Pauline sat down on a low bench at the other
+end of the fireplace.  "It was that I wanted to feel that it was really
+mailed.  Did you ever feel that way about a letter, father?  And as if,
+if you didn't hurry and get it in--you wouldn't--mail it?"
+
+Something in her tone made her father glance at her more closely; it
+was very like the tone in which Patience was apt to make her rather
+numerous confessions.  Then it occurred to him, that, whether by
+accident or design, she was sitting on the very stool on which Patience
+usually placed herself at such times, and which had gained thereby the
+name of "the stool of penitence."
+
+"Yes," he answered, "I have written such letters once or twice in my
+life."
+
+Pauline stooped to straighten out the hearth rug.  "Father," she said
+abruptly; "I have been writing to Uncle Paul."  She drew a sharp breath
+of relief.
+
+"You have been writing to your Uncle Paul!  About what, Pauline?"
+
+And Pauline told him.  When she had finished, Mr. Shaw sat for some
+moments without speaking, his eyes on the fire.
+
+"It didn't seem very--wrong, at the time," Pauline ventured.  "I had to
+do something for Hilary."
+
+"Why did you not consult your mother, or myself, before taking such a
+step, Pauline?"
+
+"I was afraid--if I did--that you would--forbid it; and I was so
+anxious to do something.  It's nearly a month now since Dr. Brice said
+Hilary must have a change.  We used to have such good times
+together--Hilary and I--but we never have fun anymore--she doesn't care
+about anything; and to-day it seemed as if I couldn't bear it any
+longer, so I wrote.  I--I am sorry, if you're displeased with me,
+father, and yet, if Uncle Paul writes back favorably, I'm afraid I
+can't help being glad I wrote."
+
+Mr. Shaw rose, lighting the low reading-lamp, standing on the study
+table.  "You are frank enough after the event, at least, Pauline.  To
+be equally so, I am displeased; displeased and exceedingly annoyed.
+However, we will let the matter rest where it is until you have heard
+from your uncle, I should advise your saying nothing to your sisters
+until his reply comes.  I am afraid you will find it disappointing."
+
+Pauline flushed.  "I never intended telling Hilary anything about it
+unless I had good news for her; as for Patience--"
+
+Out in the hall again, with the study door closed behind her, Pauline
+stood a moment choking back a sudden lump in her throat.  Would Uncle
+Paul treat her letter as a mere piece of school-girl impertinence, as
+father seemed to?
+
+From the sitting-room came an impatient summons.  "Paul, will you never
+come!"
+
+"What is it, Hilary?" Pauline asked, coming to sit at one end of the
+old sofa.
+
+"That's what I want to know," Hilary answered from the other end.
+"Impatience says you've been writing all sorts of mysterious letters
+this afternoon, and that you came home just now looking like---"
+
+"Well, like what?"
+
+"Like you'd been up to something--and weren't quite sure how the
+grown-ups were going to take it," Patience explained from the rug
+before the fire.
+
+"How do you know I have been writing--anything?" Pauline asked.
+
+"There, you see!"  Patience turned to Hilary, "she doesn't deny it!"
+
+"I'm not taking the trouble to deny or confirm little girl nonsense,"
+Pauline declared.  "But what makes you think I've been writing letters?"
+
+"Oh, 'by the pricking of my thumbs'!"  Patience rolled over, and
+resting her sharp little chin in her hands, stared up at her sisters
+from under her mop of short red curls.  "Pen!  Ink!  Paper!  And such a
+lot of torn-up scraps!  It's really very simple!"
+
+But Pauline was on her way to the dining-room.  "Terribly convincing,
+isn't it?"  Her tone should have squelched Patience, but it didn't.
+
+"You can't fool me!" that young person retorted.  "I know you've been
+up to something!  And I'm pretty sure father doesn't approve, from the
+way you waited out there in the hall just now."
+
+Pauline did not answer; she was busy laying the cloth for supper.
+"Anything up, Paul?" Hilary urged, following her sister out to the
+dining-room.
+
+"The barometer--a very little; I shouldn't wonder if we had a clear day
+to-morrow."
+
+"You are as provoking as Impatience!  But I needn't have asked; nothing
+worth while ever does happen to us."
+
+"You know perfectly well, Pauline Almy Shaw!"  Patience proclaimed,
+from the curtained archway between the rooms.  "You know perfectly
+well, that the ev'dence against you is most in-crim-i-na-ting!"
+Patience delighted in big words.
+
+"Hilary," Pauline broke in, "I forgot to tell you, I met Mrs. Dane this
+morning; she wants us to get up a social--'If the young ladies at the
+parsonage will,' and so forth."
+
+"I hate socials!  Besides, there aren't any 'young ladies' at the
+parsonage; or, at any rate, only one.  I shan't have to be a young lady
+for two years yet."
+
+"Most in-crim-i-na-ting!" Patience repeated insistently; "you wrote."
+
+Pauline turned abruptly and going into the pantry began taking down the
+cups and saucers for the table.  As soon as Hilary had gone back to the
+sitting-room, she called softly, "Patty, O Patty!"
+
+Patience grinned wickedly; she was seldom called Patty, least of all by
+Pauline.  "Well?" she answered.
+
+"Come here--please," and when Patience was safely inside the pantry,
+Pauline shut the door gently--"Now see here, Impatience--"
+
+"That isn't what you called me just now!"
+
+"Patty then--Listen, suppose--suppose I have been--trying to do
+something to--to help Hilary to get well; can't you see that I wouldn't
+want her to know, until I was sure, really sure, it was going to come
+to something?"
+
+Patience gave a little jump of excitement.  "How jolly!  But who have
+you been writing to--about it, Paul!"
+
+"I haven't said that--"
+
+"See here, Paul, I'll play fair, if you do; but if you go trying to act
+any 'grown-up sister' business I'll--"
+
+And Pauline capitulated.  "I can't tell you about it yet, Patty; father
+said not to.  I want you to promise not to ask questions, or say
+anything about it, before Hilary.  We don't want her to get all worked
+up, thinking something nice is going to happen, and then maybe have her
+disappointed."
+
+"Will it be nice--very nice?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"And will I be in it?"
+
+"I don't know.  I don't know what it'll be, or when it'll be."
+
+"Oh, dear!  I wish you did.  I can't think who it is you wrote to,
+Paul.  And why didn't father like your doing it?"
+
+"I haven't said that he--"
+
+"Paul, you're very tiresome.  Didn't he know you were going to do it?"
+
+Pauline gathered up her cups and saucers without answering.
+
+"Then he didn't," Patience observed.  "Does mother know about it?"
+
+"I mean to tell her as soon as I get a good chance," Pauline said
+impatiently, going back to the dining-room.
+
+When she returned a few moments later, she found Patience still in the
+pantry, sitting thoughtfully on the old, blue sugar bucket.  "I know,"
+Patience announced triumphantly.  "You've been writing to Uncle Paul!"
+
+Pauline gasped and fled to the kitchen; there were times when flight
+was the better part of discretion, in dealing with the youngest member
+of the Shaw family.
+
+On the whole, Patience behaved very well that evening, only, on going
+to bid her father good-night, did she ask anxiously, how long it took
+to send a letter to New York and get an answer.
+
+"That depends considerably upon the promptness with which the party
+written to answers the letter," Mr. Shaw told her.
+
+"A week?" Patience questioned.
+
+"Probably--if not longer."
+
+Patience sighed.
+
+"Have _you_ been writing a letter to someone in New York?" her father
+asked.
+
+"No, indeed," the child said gravely, "but," she looked up, answering
+his glance.  "Paul didn't tell me, father; I--guessed.  Uncle Paul does
+live in New York, doesn't he?"
+
+"Yes," Mr. Shaw answered, almost sharply.  "Now run to bed, my dear."
+
+But when the stairs were reached.  Patience most certainly did not run.
+"I think people are very queer," she said to herself, "they seem to
+think _ten_ years isn't a bit more grown-up than six or seven."
+
+"Mummy," she asked, when later her mother came to take away her light,
+"father and Uncle Paul are brethren, aren't they?"
+
+"My dear!  What put that into your head?"
+
+"Aren't they?"
+
+"Certainly, dear."
+
+"Then why don't they 'dwell together in unity'?"
+
+"Patience!"  Mrs. Shaw stared down at the sharp inquisitive little face.
+
+"Why don't they?" Patience persisted.  If persistency be a virtue,
+Patience was to be highly commended.
+
+"My dear, who has said that they do not?"
+
+Patience shrugged; as if things had always to be said.  "But, mummy--"
+
+"Go to sleep now, dear."  Mrs. Shaw bent to kiss her good-night.
+
+"All the same," Patience confided to the darkness, "I know they don't."
+She gave a little shiver of delight--something very mysterious was
+afoot evidently.
+
+Out on the landing, Mrs. Shaw found Pauline waiting for her.  "Come
+into your room, mother, please, I've started up the fire; I want to
+tell you something."
+
+"I thought as much," her mother answered.  She sat down in the big
+armchair and Pauline drew up before the fire.  "I've been expecting it
+all the evening."
+
+Pauline dropped down on the floor, her head against her mother's knee.
+"This family is dreadfully keen-sighted.  Mother dear, please don't be
+angry--" and Pauline made confession.
+
+When she had finished, Mrs. Shaw sat for some moments, as her husband
+had done, her eyes on the fire.  "You told him that we could not manage
+it, Pauline?" she said at last.  "My dear, how could you!"
+
+"But, mother dear, I was--desperate; something has to be done
+for--Hilary, and I had to do it!"
+
+"Do you suppose your father and I do not realize that quite as well as
+you do, Pauline?"
+
+"You and I have talked it over and over, and father never
+says--anything."
+
+"Not to you, perhaps; but he is giving the matter very careful
+consideration, and later he hopes--"
+
+"Mother dear, that is so indefinite!" Pauline broke in.  "And I can't
+see--Father is Uncle Paul's only brother!  If I were rich, and Hilary
+were not and needed things, I would want her to let me know."
+
+"It is possible, that under certain conditions, Hilary would not wish
+you to know."  Mrs. Shaw hesitated, then she said slowly, "You know,
+Pauline, that your uncle is much older than your father; so much older,
+that he seemed to stand--when your father was a boy--more in the light
+of a father to him, than an older brother.  He was much opposed to your
+father's going into the ministry, he wanted him to go into business
+with him.  He is a strong-willed man, and does not easily relinquish
+any plan of his own making.  It went hard with him, when your father
+refused to yield; later, when your father received the call to this
+parish, your uncle quite as strongly opposed his accepting it--burying
+himself alive in a little out-of-the-way hole, he called it.  It came
+to the point, finally, on your uncle's insisting on his making it a
+choice between himself and Winton.  He refused to ever come near the
+place and the two or three letters your father wrote at first remained
+unanswered.  The breach between them has been one of the hardest trials
+your father has had to bear."
+
+"Oh," Pauline cried miserably, "what a horrid interfering thing father
+must think me!  Rushing in where I had no right to!  I wish I'd
+known--I just thought--you see, father speaks of Uncle Paul now and
+then--that maybe they'd only--grown apart--and that if Uncle Paul knew!
+But perhaps my letter will get lost.  It would serve me right; and yet,
+if it does, I'm afraid I can't help feeling somewhat disappointed--on
+Hilary's account."
+
+Her mother smiled.  "We can only wait and see.  I would rather you said
+nothing of what I have been telling you to either Hilary or Patience,
+Pauline."
+
+"I won't, Mother Shaw.  It seems I have a lot of secrets from Hilary.
+And I won't write any more such letters without consulting you or
+father, you can depend on that."
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw's answer did not come within the allotted week.  It was
+the longest week Pauline had ever known; and when the second went by
+and still no word from her uncle, the waiting and uncertainty became
+very hard to bear, all the harder, that her usual confidant, Hilary,
+must not be allowed to suspect anything.
+
+The weather had turned suddenly warm, and Hilary's listlessness had
+increased proportionately, which probably accounted for the dying out
+of what little interest she had felt at first in Patience's "mysterious
+letter."
+
+Patience, herself, was doing her best to play fair; fortunately, she
+was in school the greater part of the day, else the strain upon her
+powers of self-control might have proved too heavy.
+
+"Mother," Pauline said one evening, lingering in her mother's room,
+after Hilary had gone to bed, "I don't believe Uncle Paul means
+answering at all.  I wish I'd never asked him to do anything."
+
+"So do I, Pauline.  Still it is rather early yet for you to give up
+hope.  It's hard waiting, I know, dear, but that is something we all
+have to learn to do, sooner or later."
+
+"I don't think 'no news is good news,'" Pauline said; then she
+brightened.  "Oh, Mother Shaw!  Suppose the letter is on the way now,
+and that Hilary is to have a sea voyage!  You'd have to go, too."
+
+"Pauline, Pauline, not so fast!  Listen, dear, we might send Hilary out
+to The Maples for a week or two.  Mrs. Boyd would be delighted to have
+her; and it wouldn't be too far away, in case we should be getting her
+ready for that--sea voyage."
+
+"I don't believe she'd care to go; it's quieter than here at home."
+
+"But it would be a change.  I believe I'll suggest it to her in the
+morning."
+
+But when Mrs. Shaw did suggest it the next morning, Hilary was quite of
+Pauline's opinion.  "I shouldn't like it a bit, mother!  It would be
+worse than home--duller, I mean; and Mrs. Boyd would fuss over me so,"
+she said impatiently.
+
+"You used to like going there, Hilary."
+
+"Mother, you can't want me to go."
+
+"I think it might do you good, Hilary.  I should like you to try it."
+
+"Please, mother, I don't see the use of bothering with little half-way
+things."
+
+"I do, Hilary, when they are the only ones within reach."
+
+The girl moved restlessly, settling her hammock cushions; then she lay
+looking out over the sunny garden with discontented eyes.
+
+It was a large old-fashioned garden, separated on the further side by a
+low hedge from the old ivy-covered church.  On the back steps of the
+church, Sextoness Jane was shaking out her duster.  She was old and
+gray and insignificant looking; her duties as sexton, in which she had
+succeeded her father, were her great delight.  The will with which she
+sang and worked now seemed to have in it something of reproach for the
+girl stretched out idly in the hammock.  Nothing more than half-way
+things, and not too many of those, had ever come Sextoness Jane's way.
+Yet she was singing now over her work.
+
+Hilary moved impatiently, turning her back on the garden and the bent
+old figure moving about in the church beyond; but, somehow, she
+couldn't turn her back on what that bent old figure had suddenly come
+to stand for.
+
+Fifteen minutes later, she sat up, pushing herself slowly back and
+forth.  "I wish Jane had chosen any other morning to clean the church
+in, Mother Shaw!" she protested with spirit.
+
+Her mother looked up from her mending.  "Why, dear?  It is her regular
+day."
+
+"Couldn't she do it, I wonder, on an irregular day!  Anyhow, if she
+had, I shouldn't have to go to The Maples this afternoon.  Must I take
+a trunk, mother?"
+
+"Hilary!  But what has Jane to do with your going?"
+
+"Pretty nearly everything, I reckon.  Must I, mother?"
+
+"No, indeed, dear; and you are not to go at all, unless you can do it
+willingly."
+
+"Oh, I'm fairly resigned; don't press me too hard, Mother Shaw.  I
+think I'll go tell Paul now."
+
+"Well," Pauline said, "I'm glad you've decided to go, Hilary.  I--that
+is, maybe it won't be for very long."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MAPLES
+
+That afternoon Pauline drove Hilary out to the big, busy, pleasant
+farm, called The Maples.
+
+As they jogged slowly down the one principal street of the sleepy, old
+town, Pauline tried to imagine that presently they would turn off down
+the by-road, leading to the station.  Through the still air came the
+sound of the afternoon train, panting and puffing to be off with as
+much importance as the big train, which later, it would connect with
+down at the junction.
+
+"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you thinking about?"
+
+Pauline slapped the reins lightly across old Fanny's plump sides.  "Oh,
+different things--traveling for one."  Suppose Uncle Paul's letter
+should come in this afternoon's mail!  That she would find it waiting
+for her when she got home!
+
+"So was I," Hilary said.  "I was wishing that you and I were going off
+on that train, Paul."
+
+"Where to?" Paul asked.  After all, it couldn't do any harm--Hilary
+would think it one of their "pretend" talks, and it would he nice to
+have some definite basis to build on later.
+
+"Anywhere," Hilary answered.  "I would like to go to the seashore
+somewhere; but most anywhere, where there were people and interesting
+things to do and see, would do."
+
+"Yes," Pauline agreed.
+
+"There's Josie," Hilary said, and her sister drew rein, as a girl came
+to the edge of the walk to speak to them.
+
+"Going away?" she asked, catching sight of the valise.
+
+"Only out to the Boyds'," Pauline told her, "to leave Hilary."
+
+Josie shifted the strap of school-books under her arm impatiently.
+"'Only!'" she repeated.  "Well, I just wish I was going, too; it's a
+deal pleasanter out there, than in a stuffy school room these days."
+
+"It's stupid--and you both know it," Hilary protested.  She glanced
+enviously at Josie's strap of hooks.  "And when school closes, you'll
+be through for good, Josie Brice.  We shan't finish together, after
+all, now."
+
+"Oh, I'm not through yet," Josie assured her.  "Father'll be going out
+past The Maples Saturday morning, I'll get him to take me along."
+
+Hilary brightened.  "Don't forget," she urged, and as she and Pauline
+drove on, she added, "I suppose I can stick it out for a week."
+
+"Well, I should think as much.  _Will_ you go on, Fanny!"  Pauline
+slapped the dignified, complacent Fanny with rather more severity than
+before.  "She's one great mass of laziness," she declared.  "Father's
+spoiled her a great deal more than he ever has any of us."
+
+It was a three-mile drive from the village to The Maples, through
+pleasant winding roads, hardly deserving of a more important title than
+lane.  Now and then, from the top of a low hill, they caught a glimpse
+of the great lake beyond, shining in the afternoon sunlight, a little
+ruffled by the light breeze sweeping down to it from the mountains
+bordering it on the further side.
+
+Hilary leaned back in the wide shaded gig; she looked tired, and yet
+the new touch of color in her cheeks was not altogether due to
+weariness.  "The ride's done you good," Pauline said.
+
+"I wonder what there'll be for supper," Hilary remarked.  "You'll stay,
+Paul?"
+
+"If you promise to eat a good one."  It was comforting to have Hilary
+actually wondering what they would have.
+
+They had reached the broad avenue of maples leading from the road up to
+the house.  It was a long, low, weather-stained house, breathing an
+unmistakable air of generous and warm-hearted hospitality.  Pauline
+never came to it, without a sense of pity for the kindly elderly
+couple, who were so fond of young folks, and who had none of their own.
+
+Mrs. Boyd had seen them coming, and she came out to meet them, as they
+turned into the dooryard.  And an old dog, sunning himself on the
+doorstep, rose with a slow wag of welcome.
+
+"Mother's sent you something she was sure you would like to have,"
+Pauline said.  "Please, will you take in a visitor for a few days?" she
+added, laying a hand on Hilary's.
+
+"You've brought Hilary out to stop?" Mrs. Boyd cried delightedly.  "Now
+I call that mighty good of your mother.  You come right 'long in, both
+of you: you're sure you can't stop, too, Pauline?"
+
+"Only to supper, thank you."
+
+Mrs. Boyd had the big valise out from under the seat by now.  "Come
+right 'long in," she repeated.  "You're tired, aren't you, Hilary?  But
+a good night's rest'll set you up wonderful.  Take her into the spare
+room, Pauline.  Dear me, I must have felt you was coming, seeing that I
+aired it out beautiful only this morning.  I'll go call Mr. Boyd to
+take Fanny to the barn."
+
+"Isn't she the dearest thing!" Pauline declared, as she and Hilary went
+indoors.
+
+The spare room was back of the parlor, a large comfortable room, with
+broad windows facing south and west, and a small vine-covered porch all
+its own on the south side of the room.
+
+Pauline pulled forward a great chintz-cushioned rocker, putting her
+sister into it, and opened the porch door.  Beyond lay a wide, sloping
+meadow and beyond the meadow, the lake sparkled and rippled in the
+sunshine.
+
+"If you're not contented here, Hilary Shaw!" Pauline said, standing in
+the low doorway.  "Suppose you pretend you've never been here before!
+I reckon you'd travel a long ways to find a nicer place to stay in."
+
+"I shouldn't doubt it if you were going to stay with me, Paul; I know
+I'm going to be homesick."
+
+Pauline stretched out a hand to Captain, the old dog, who had come
+around to pay his compliments.  Captain liked visitors--when he was
+convinced that they really were visitors, not peddlers, nor agents,
+quite as well as his master and mistress did.  "You'd be homesick
+enough, if you really were off on your travels--you'd better get used
+to it.  Hadn't she, Captain?"  Pauline went to unpack the valise,
+opening the drawers of the old-fashioned mahogany bureau with a little
+breath of pleasure.  "Lavender!  Hilary."
+
+Hilary smiled, catching some of her sister's enthusiasm.  She leaned
+back among her cushions, her eyes on the stretch of shining water at
+the far end of the pasture.  "I wish you were going to be here, Paul,
+so that we could go rowing.  I wonder if I'll ever feel as if I could
+row again, myself."
+
+"Of course you will, and a great deal sooner than you think."  Pauline
+hung Hilary's dressing-gown across the foot of the high double bed.
+"Now I think you're all settled, ma'am, and I hope to your
+satisfaction.  Isn't it a veritable 'chamber of peace,' Hilary?"
+
+Through the open door and windows came the distant tinkle of a cow
+bell, and other farm sounds.  There came, too, the scent of the early
+May pinks growing in the borders of Mrs. Boyd's old-fashioned flower
+beds.  Already the peace and quiet of the house, the homely comfort,
+had done Hilary good; the thought of the long simple days to come, were
+not so depressing as they had seemed when thought of that morning.
+
+"Bless me, I'd forgotten, but I've a bit of news for you," Mrs. Boyd
+said, coming in, a moment or so later; "the manor's taken for the
+summer."
+
+"Really?" Pauline cried, "why it's been empty for ever and ever so
+long."
+
+The manor was an old rambling stone house, standing a little back from
+a bit of sandy beach, that jutted out into the lake about a mile from
+The Maples.  It was a pleasant place, with a tiny grove of its own, and
+good-sized garden, which, year after year, in spite of neglect, was
+bright with old-fashioned hardy annuals planted long ago, when the
+manor had been something more than an old neglected house, at the mercy
+of a chance tenant.
+
+"Just a father and daughter.  They've got old Betsy Todd to look after
+them," Mrs. Boyd went on.  "The girl's about your age, Hilary.  You
+wasn't looking to find company of that sort so near, was you?"
+
+Hilary looked interested.  "No," she answered.  "But, after all, the
+manor's a mile away."
+
+"Oh, she's back and forth every day--for milk, or one thing or another;
+she's terribly interested in the farm; father's taken a great notion to
+her.  She'll be over after supper, you'll see; and then I'll make you
+acquainted with her."
+
+"Are they city people?" Pauline asked.
+
+"From New York!" Mrs. Boyd told her proudly.  From her air one would
+have supposed she had planned the whole affair expressly for Hilary's
+benefit.  "Their name's Dayre."
+
+"What is the girl's first name?" Pauline questioned.
+
+"Shirley; it's a queer name for a girl, to my thinking."
+
+"Is she pretty?" Pauline went on.
+
+"Not according to my notions; father says she is.  She's thin and dark,
+and I never did see such a mane of hair--and it ain't always too tidy,
+neither--but she has got nice eyes and a nice friendly way of talking.
+Looks to me, like she hasn't been brought up by a woman."
+
+"She sounds--interesting," Pauline said, and when Mrs. Boyd had left
+them, to make a few changes in her supper arrangements, Pauline turned
+eagerly to Hilary.  "You're in luck, Hilary Shaw!  The newest kind of
+new people; even if it isn't a new place!"
+
+"How do you know they'll, or rather, she'll, want to know me?" Hilary
+asked, with one of those sudden changes of mood an invalid often shows,
+"or I her?  We haven't seen her yet.  Paul, do you suppose Mrs. Boyd
+would mind letting me have supper in here?"
+
+"Oh, Hilary, she's laid the table in the living-room!  I heard her
+doing it.  She'd be ever so disappointed."
+
+"Well," Hilary said, "come on then."
+
+Out in the living-room, they found Mr. Boyd waiting for them, and so
+heartily glad to see them, that Hilary's momentary impatience vanished.
+To Pauline's delight, she really brought quite an appetite to her
+supper.
+
+"You should've come out here long ago, Hilary," Mr. Boyd told her, and
+he insisted on her having a second helping of the creamed toast,
+prepared especially in her honor.
+
+Before supper was over.  Captain's deep-toned bark proclaimed a
+newcomer, or newcomers, seeing that it was answered immediately by a
+medley of shrill barks, in the midst of which a girl's voice sounded
+authoritively--"Quiet, Phil!  Pat, I'm ashamed of you!  Pudgey, if
+you're not good instantly, you shall stay at home to-morrow night!"
+
+A moment later, the owner of the voice appeared at the porch door, "May
+I come in, Mrs. Boyd?" she asked.
+
+"Come right in, Miss Shirley.  I've a couple of young friends here, I
+want you should get acquainted with," Mrs. Boyd cried.
+
+"You ain't had your supper yet, have you, Miss Shirley?" Mr. Boyd asked.
+
+"Father and I had tea out on the lake," Shirley answered, "but I'm
+hungry enough again by now, for a slice of Mrs. Boyd's bread and
+butter."
+
+And presently, she was seated at the table, chatting away with Paul and
+Hilary, as if they were old acquaintances, asking Mr. Boyd various
+questions about farm matters and answering Mrs. Boyd's questions
+regarding Betsy Todd and her doings, with the most delightful air of
+good comradeship imaginable.
+
+"Oh, me!"  Pauline pushed hack her chair regretfully, "I simply must
+go, it'll be dark before I get home, as it is."
+
+"I reckon it will, deary," Mrs. Boyd agreed, "so I won't urge you to
+stay longer.  Father, you just whistle to Colin to bring Fanny 'round."
+
+Hilary followed her sister into the bedroom.  "You'll be over soon,
+Paul?"
+
+Pauline, putting on her hat before the glass, turned quickly.  "As soon
+as I can.  Hilary, don't you like her?"
+
+Hilary balanced herself on the arm of the big, old-fashioned rocker.
+"I think so.  Anyway, I love to watch her talk; she talks all over her
+face."
+
+They went out to the gig, where Mr. and Mrs. Boyd and Shirley were
+standing.  Shirley was feeding Fanny with handfuls of fresh grass.
+"Isn't she a fat old dear!" she said.
+
+"She's a fat old poke!" Pauline returned.  "Mayn't I give you a lift?
+I can go 'round by the manor road 's well as not."
+
+Shirley accepted readily, settling herself in the gig, and balancing
+her pail of milk on her knee carefully.
+
+"Good-by," Pauline called.  "Mind, you're to be ever and ever so much
+better, next time I come, Hilary."
+
+"Your sister has been sick?" Shirley asked, her voice full of
+sympathetic interest.
+
+"Not sick--exactly; just run down and listless."
+
+Shirley leaned a little forward, drawing in long breaths of the clear
+evening air.  "I don't see how anyone can ever get run down--here, in
+this air; I'm hardly indoors at all.  Father and I have our meals out
+on the porch.  You ought to have seen Betsy Todd's face, the first time
+I proposed it.  'Ain't the dining-room to your liking, miss?'" she
+asked.
+
+"Betsy Todd's a queer old thing," Pauline commented.  "Father has the
+worst time, getting her to come to church."
+
+"We were there last Sunday," Shirley said.  "I'm afraid we were rather
+late; it's a pretty old church, isn't it?  I suppose you live in that
+square white house next to it?"
+
+"Yes," Pauline answered.  "Father came to Winton just after he was
+married, so we girls have never lived anywhere else nor been anywhere
+else--that counted.  Any really big city, I mean.  We're dreadfully
+tired of Winton--Hilary, especially."
+
+"It's a mighty pretty place."
+
+"I suppose so."  Pauline slapped old Fanny impatiently.  "Will you go
+on!"
+
+Fanny was making forward most reluctantly; the Boyd barn had been very
+much to her liking.  Now, as the three dogs made a swift rush at her
+leaping and barking around her, she gave a snort of disgust, quickening
+her pace involuntarily.
+
+"Don't call them off, please!" Pauline begged Shirley.  "She isn't in
+the least scared, and it's perfectly refreshing to find that she can
+move."
+
+"All the same, discipline must be maintained," Shirley insisted; and at
+her command the dogs fell behind.
+
+"Have you been here long?" Pauline asked.
+
+"About two weeks.  We were going further up the lake--just on a
+sketching trip,--and we saw this house from the deck of the boat; it
+looked so delightful, and so deserted and lonely, that we came back
+from the next landing to see about it.  We took it at once and sent for
+a lot of traps from the studio at home, they aren't here yet."
+
+Pauline looked her interest.  It seemed a very odd, attractive way of
+doing things, no long tiresome plannings of ways and means beforehand.
+Suppose--when Uncle Paul's letter came--they could set off in such
+fashion, with no definite point in view, and stop wherever they felt
+like it.
+
+"I can't think," Shirley went on, "how such a charming old place came
+to be standing idle."
+
+"Isn't it rather--run down?"
+
+"Not enough to matter--really.  I want father to buy it, and do what is
+needed to it, without making it all new and snug looking.  The sunsets
+from that front lawn are gorgeous, don't you think so?"
+
+"Yes," Pauline agreed, "I haven't been over there in two years.  We
+used to have picnics near there."
+
+"I hope you will again, this summer, and invite father and me.  We
+adore picnics; we've had several since we came--he and I and the dogs.
+The dogs do love picnics so, too."
+
+Pauline had given up wanting to hurry Fanny; what a lot she would have
+to tell her mother when she got home.
+
+She was sorry when a turn in the road brought them within sight of the
+old manor house.  "There's father!" Shirley said, nodding to a figure
+coming towards them across a field.  The dogs were off to meet him
+directly, with shrill barks of pleasure.
+
+"May I get down here, please?" Shirley asked.  "Thank you very much for
+the lift; and I am so glad to have met you and your sister, Miss Shaw.
+You'll both come and see me soon, won't you?"
+
+"We'd love to," Pauline answered heartily; "'cross lots, it's not so
+very far over here from the parsonage, and," she hesitated,
+"you--you'll be seeing Hilary quite often, while she's at The Maples,
+perhaps?"
+
+"I hope so.  Father's on the lookout for a horse and rig for me, and
+then she and I can have some drives together.  She will know where to
+find the prettiest roads."
+
+"Oh, she would enjoy that," Pauline said eagerly, and as she drove on,
+she turned more than once to glance back at the tall, slender figure
+crossing the field.  Shirley seemed to walk as if the mere act of
+walking were in itself a pleasure.  Pauline thought she had never
+before known anyone who appeared so alive from head to foot.
+
+"Go 'long, Fanny!" she commanded; she was in a hurry to get home now,
+with her burden of news.  It seemed to her as if she had been away a
+long while, so much had happened in the meantime.
+
+At the parsonage gate, Pauline found Patience waiting for her.  "You
+have taken your time, Paul Shaw!" the child said, climbing in beside
+her sister.
+
+"Fanny's time, you mean!"
+
+"It hasn't come yet!" Patience said protestingly.  "I went for the mail
+myself this afternoon, so I know!"
+
+"Oh, well, perhaps it will to-morrow," Pauline answered, with so little
+of real concern in her voice, that Patience wondered.  "Suppose you
+take Fanny on to the barn.  Mother's home, isn't she?"
+
+Patience glanced at her sharply.  "You've got something--particular--to
+tell mother!  O Paul, please wait 'til I come.  Is it about--"
+
+"You're getting to look more like an interrogation point every day,
+Impatience!" Pauline told her, getting down from the gig.
+
+Patience sniffed.  "If nobody ever asked questions, nobody'd ever know
+anything!" she declared.
+
+"Is mother home?" Pauline asked again.
+
+"Who's asking things now!"  Patience drew the reins up tightly and
+bouncing up and down on the carriage seat, called sharply--"Hi yi!  Hi
+yi!"
+
+It was the one method that never failed to rouse Fanny's indignation,
+producing, for the moment, the desired effect; still, as Pauline said,
+it was hardly a proceeding that Hilary or she could adopt, or, least of
+all, their father.
+
+As she trotted briskly off to the barn now, the very tilt of Fanny's
+ears expressed injured dignity.  Dignity was Fanny's strong point;
+that, and the ability to cover less ground in an afternoon than any
+other horse in Winton.  The small human being at the other end of those
+taut reins might have known she would have needed no urging barnwards.
+
+"Maybe you don't like it," Patience observed, "but that makes no
+difference--'s long's it's for your good.  You're a very unchristiany
+horse, Fanny Shaw.  And I'll 'hi yi' you every time I get a chance; so
+now go on."
+
+However Patience was indoors in time to hear all but the very beginning
+of Pauline's story of her afternoon's experience.  "I told you," she
+broke in, "that I saw a nice girl at church last Sunday--in Mrs.
+Dobson's pew; and Mrs. Dobson kept looking at her out of the corner of
+her eyes all the tune, 'stead of paying attention to what father was
+saying; and Miranda says, ten to one.  Sally Dobson comes out in--"
+
+"That will do, Patience," her mother said, "if you are going to
+interrupt in this fashion, you must run away."
+
+Patience subsided reluctantly, her blue eyes most expressive.
+
+"Isn't it nice for Hilary, mother?  Now she'll be contented to stay a
+week or two, don't you think?" Pauline said.
+
+"I hope so, dear.  Yes, it is very nice."
+
+"She was looking better already, mother; brighter, you know."
+
+"Mummy, is asking a perfectly necessary question 'interrupting'?'"
+
+"Perhaps not, dear, if there is only one," smiled Mrs. Shaw.
+
+"Mayn't I, please, go with Paul and Hilary when they go to call on that
+girl?"
+
+"On whom, Patience?"
+
+Patience wriggled impatiently; grown people were certainly very trying
+at times.  "On Paul's and Hilary's new friend, mummy."
+
+"Not the first time, Patience; possibly later--"
+
+Patience shrugged.  "By and by," she observed, addressing the room at
+large, "when Paul and Hilary are married, I'll be Miss Shaw!  And
+then--" the thought appeared to give her considerable comfort.
+
+"And maybe, Towser," she confided later, as the two sat together on the
+side porch, "maybe--some day--you and I'll go to call on them on our
+own account.  I'm not sure it isn't your duty to call on those
+dogs--you lived here first, and I can't see why it isn't mine--to call
+on that girl.  Father says, we should always hasten to welcome the
+stranger; and they sound dreadfully interesting."
+
+Towser blinked a sleepy acquiescence.  In spite of his years, he still
+followed blindly where Patience led, though the consequences were
+frequently disastrous.
+
+It was the next afternoon that Pauline, reading in the garden, heard an
+eager little voice calling excitedly, "Paul, where are you!  It's come!
+It's come!  I brought it up from the office myself!"
+
+Pauline sprang up.  "Here I am, Patience!  Hurry!"
+
+"Well, I like that!" Patience said, coming across the lawn.  "Hurry!
+Haven't I run every inch of the way home!"  She waved the letter above
+her head--"'Miss Pauline A.  Shaw!'  It's type-written!  O Paul, aren't
+you going to read it out here!"
+
+For Pauline, catching the letter from her, had run into the house,
+crying--"Mother!  O Mother Shaw!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER
+
+"Mother!  O mother, where are you!" Pauline cried, and on Mrs. Shaw's
+answering from her own room, she ran on up-stairs.  "O Mother Shaw!
+It's come at last!" she announced breathlessly.
+
+"So I thought--when I heard Patience calling just now.  Pauline, dear,
+try not to be too disappointed if--"
+
+"You open it, mother--please!  Now it's really come, I'm--afraid to."
+Pauline held out her letter.
+
+"No, dear, it is addressed to you," Mrs. Shaw answered quietly.
+
+And Pauline, a good deal sobered by the gravity with which her mother
+had received the news, sat down on the wide window seat, near her
+mother's chair, tearing open the envelope.  As she spread out the heavy
+businesslike sheet of paper within, a small folded enclosure fell from
+it into her lap.
+
+"Oh, mother!" Pauline caught up the narrow blue slip.  She had never
+received a check from anyone before.  "Mother! listen!" and she read
+aloud, "'Pay to the order of Miss Pauline A. Shaw, the sum of
+twenty-five dollars.'"
+
+Twenty-five dollars!  One ought to be able to do a good deal with
+twenty-five dollars!
+
+"Goodness me!" Patience exclaimed.  She had followed her sister
+up-stairs, after a discreet interval, curling herself up unobtrusively
+in a big chair just inside the doorway.  "Can you do what you like with
+it, Paul?"
+
+But Pauline was bending over the letter, a bright spot of color on each
+cheek.  Presently, she handed it to her mother.  "I wish--I'd never
+written to him!  Read it, mother!"
+
+And Mrs. Shaw read, as follows--
+
+
+          NEW YORK CITY, May 31, 19--.
+
+_Miss Pauline A. Shaw,
+  Winton, Vt._
+
+MY DEAR NIECE: Yours of May 16th to hand.  I am sorry to learn that
+your sister Hilary appears to be in such poor health at present.  Such
+being the case, however, it would seem to me that home was the best
+place for her.  I do not at all approve of this modern fashion of
+running about the country, on any and every pretext.  Also, if I
+remember correctly, your father has frequently described Winton to me
+as a place of great natural charms, and peculiarly adapted to those
+suffering from so-called nervous disorders.
+
+Altogether, I do not feel inclined to comply with your request to make
+it possible for your sister to leave home, in search of change and
+recreation.  Instead, beginning with this letter, I will forward you
+each month during the summer, the sum of twenty-five dollars, to be
+used in procuring for your sisters and yourself--I understand, there is
+a third child--such simple and healthful diversions as your parents may
+approve, the only conditions I make, being, that at no time shall any
+of your pleasure trips take you further than ten miles from home, and
+that you keep me informed, from time to time, how this plan of mine is
+succeeding.
+
+Trusting this may prove satisfactory,
+
+    Very respectfully,
+        PAUL A. SHAW.
+
+
+"What do you think, mother?" Pauline asked, as Mrs. Shaw finished
+reading.  "Isn't it a very--queer sort of letter?"
+
+"It is an extremely characteristic one, dear."
+
+"I think," Patience could contain herself no longer, "that you are the
+inconsideratest persons!  You know I'm perfectly wild to know what's in
+that letter!"
+
+"Run away now, Patience," her mother said.  "You shall hear about it
+later," and when Patience had obeyed--not very willingly, Mrs. Shaw
+turned again to Pauline.  "We must show this to your father, before
+making any plans in regard to it, dear."
+
+"He's coming now.  You show it to him, please, mother."
+
+When her mother had gone down-stairs, Pauline still sat there in the
+window seat, looking soberly out across the lawn to the village street,
+with its double rows of tall, old trees.  So her flag had served little
+purpose after all!  That change for Hilary was still as uncertain, as
+much a vague part of the future, as it had ever been.
+
+It seemed to the girl, at the moment, as if she fairly hated Winton.
+As though Hilary and she did not already know every stick and stone in
+it, had not long ago exhausted all its possibilities!
+
+New people might think it "quaint" and "pretty" but they had not lived
+here all their lives.  And, besides, she had expressly told Uncle Paul
+that the doctor had said that Hilary needed a change.
+
+She was still brooding over the downfall of her hopes, when her mother
+called to her from the garden.  Pauline went down, feeling that it
+mattered very little what her father's decision had been--it could make
+so little difference to them, either way.
+
+Mrs. Shaw was on the bench under the old elm, that stood midway between
+parsonage and church.  She had been rereading Uncle Paul's letter, and
+to Pauline's wonder, there was something like a smile of amusement in
+her eyes.
+
+"Well, mother?" the girl asked.
+
+"Well, dear, your father and I have talked the matter over, and we have
+decided to allow you to accept your uncle's offer."
+
+"But that--hateful condition!  How is Hilary to get a chance--here in
+Winton?"
+
+"Who was it that I heard saying, only this morning, Pauline, that even
+if Uncle Paul didn't agree, she really believed we might manage to have
+a very pleasant summer here at home?"
+
+"I know--but still, now that we know definitely--"
+
+"We can go to work definitely to do even better."
+
+"But how, mother!"
+
+"That is what we must think over.  Suppose you put your wits to work
+right now.  I must go down to Jane's for a few moments.  After all,
+Pauline, those promised twenty-fives can be used very pleasantly--even
+in Winton."
+
+"But it will still be Winton."
+
+"Winton may develop some unexplored corners, some new outlooks."
+
+Pauline looked rather doubtful; then, catching sight of a small
+dejected-looking little figure in the swing, under the big cherry-tree
+at the foot of the lawn, she asked, "I suppose I may tell Patience now,
+mother?  She really has been very good all this time of waiting."
+
+"She certainly has.  Only, not too many details, Pauline.  Patience is
+of such a confiding disposition."
+
+"Patience," Pauline called, "suppose we go see if there aren't some
+strawberries ripe?"
+
+Patience ran off for a basket.  Strawberries!  As if she didn't know
+they were only a pretext.  Grown people were assuredly very queer--but
+sometimes, it was necessary to humor, their little whims and ways.
+
+"I don't believe they are ripe yet," she said, skipping along beside
+her sister.  "O Paul, is it--nice?"
+
+"Mother thinks so!"
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Maybe I will--after a while.  Hilary isn't to go away."
+
+"Is that what you wrote and asked Uncle Paul?  And didn't you ask for
+us all to go?"
+
+"Certainly not--we're not sick," said Pauline, laughing.
+
+"Miranda says what Hilary needs is a good herb tonic!"
+
+"Miranda doesn't know everything."
+
+"What is Uncle Paul going to do then?"
+
+"Send some money every month--to have good times with at home."
+
+"One of those blue paper things?"
+
+"I suppose so," Pauline laughed.
+
+"And _you_ don't call that _nice_!  Well of all the ungratefullest
+girls!  Is it for us _all_ to have good times with?  Or just Hilary?"
+
+"All of us.  Of course, Hilary must come first."
+
+Patience fairly jumped up and down with excitement.  "When will they
+begin, and what will they be like?  O Paul, just think of the good
+times we've had _without_ any money 't all!  Aren't we the luckiest
+girls!"
+
+They had reached the strawberry-bed and Patience dropped down in the
+grass beside it, her hands clasped around her knees.  "Good times in
+Winton will be a lot better than good times anywhere else.  Winton's
+such a nice sociable place."
+
+Pauline settled herself on the top rail of the fence bordering the
+garden at the back.  Patience's enthusiasm was infectious.  "What sort
+of good times do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Picnics!"
+
+"We have such a lot of picnics--year after year!"
+
+"A nice picnic is always sort of new.  Miranda does put up such
+beautiful lunches.  O Paul, couldn't we afford chocolate layer cake
+_every_ time, now?"
+
+"You goosey!" Pauline laughed again heartily.
+
+"And maybe there'll be an excursion somewhere's, and by'n'by there'll
+be the town fair.  Paul, there's a ripe berry!  And another and--"
+
+"See here, hold on, Impatience!" Pauline protested, as the berries
+disappeared, one after another, down Patience's small throat.
+"Perhaps, if you stop eating them all, we can get enough for mother's
+and father's supper."
+
+"Maybe they went and hurried to get ripe for to-night, so we could
+celebrate," Patience suggested.  "Paul, mayn't I go with you next time
+you go over to The Maples?"
+
+"We'll see what mother says."
+
+"I hate 'we'll see's'!" Patience declared, reaching so far over after a
+particularly tempting berry, that she lost her balance, and fell face
+down among them.
+
+"Oh, dear!" she sighed, as her sister came to her assistance,
+"something always seems to happen clean-apron afternoon!  Paul,
+wouldn't it be a 'good time,' if Miranda would agree not to scold 'bout
+perfectly unavoidable accidents once this whole summer?"
+
+"Who's to do the deciding as to the unavoidableness?" Pauline asked.
+"Come on, Patience, we've got about all the ripe ones, and it must be
+time for you to lay the supper-table."
+
+"Not laying supper-tables would be another good time," Patience
+answered.  "We did get enough, didn't we?  I'll hull them."
+
+"I wonder," Pauline said, more as if speaking to herself, "whether
+maybe mother wouldn't think it good to have Jane in now and then--for
+extra work?  Not supper-tables, young lady."
+
+"Jane would love it.  She likes to work with Miranda--she says
+Miranda's such a nice lady.  Do you think she is, Paul?"
+
+"I'm thinking about other things just now."
+
+"I  don't--There's  mother.  Goodness, Miranda's got the cloth on!"
+And away sped the child.
+
+To Patience's astonishment, nothing was said at supper, either of Uncle
+Paul's letter, or the wonderful things it was to lead to.  Mr. Shaw
+kept his wife engaged with parish subjects and Pauline appeared lost in
+thoughts of her own.  Patience fidgeted as openly as she dared.  Of all
+queer grown-ups--and it looked as though most grown-ups were more or
+less queer--father was certainly the queerest.  Of course, he knew
+about the letter; and how could he go on talking about stupid,
+uninteresting matters--like the Ladies' Aid and the new hymn books?
+
+Even the first strawberries of the season passed unnoticed, as far as
+he was concerned, though Mrs. Shaw gave Patience a little smiling nod,
+in recognition of them.
+
+"Mother," Pauline exclaimed, the moment her father had gone back to his
+study, "I've been thinking--Suppose we get Hilary to pretend--that
+coming home is coming to a _new_ place?  That she is coming to visit
+us?  We'll think up all the interesting things to do, that we can, and
+the pretty places to show her."
+
+"That would be a good plan, Pauline."
+
+"And if she's company, she'll have to have the spare room," Patience
+added.
+
+"Jolly for you, Patience!" Pauline said.  "Only, mother, Hilary doesn't
+like the spare room; she says it's the dreariest room in the house."
+
+"If she's company, she'll have to pretend to like it, it wouldn't be
+good manners not to," Patience observed.  The prospect opening out
+ahead of them seemed full of delightful possibilities.  "I hope Miranda
+catches on to the game, and gives us pound-cake and hot biscuits for
+supper ever so often, and doesn't call me to do things, when I'm busy
+entertaining 'the company.'"
+
+"Mother," Pauline broke in--"do keep quiet.  Impatience--couldn't we do
+the spare room over--there's that twenty-five dollars?  We've planned
+it so often."
+
+"We might make some alterations, dear--at least."
+
+"We'll take stock the first thing to-morrow morning.  I suppose we
+can't really start in before Monday."
+
+"Hardly, seeing that it is Friday night."
+
+They were still talking this new idea over, though Patience had been
+sent to bed, when Mr. Shaw came in from a visit to a sick parishioner.
+"We've got the most beautiful scheme on hand, father," Pauline told
+him, wheeling forward his favorite chair.  She hoped he would sit down
+and talk things over with them, instead of going on to the study; it
+wouldn't be half as nice, if he stayed outside of everything.
+
+"New schemes appear to be rampant these days," Mr. Shaw said, but he
+settled himself comfortably in the big chair, quite as though he meant
+to stay with them.  "What is this particular one?"
+
+He listened, while Pauline explained, really listened, instead of
+merely seeming to.  "It does appear an excellent idea," he said; "but
+why should it be Hilary only, who is to try to see Winton with new eyes
+this summer?  Suppose we were all to do so?"
+
+Pauline clapped her hands softly.  "Then you'll help us?  And we'll all
+pretend.  Maybe Uncle Paul's thought isn't such a bad one, after all."
+
+"Paul always believed in developing the opportunities nearest hand,"
+Mr. Shaw answered.  He stroked the head Towser laid against his knee.
+"Your mother and I will be the gainers--if we keep all our girls at
+home, and still achieve the desired end."
+
+Pauline glanced up quickly.  How could she have thought him
+unheeding--indifferent?
+
+"Somehow, I think it will work out all right," she said.  "Anyhow,
+we're going to try it, aren't we.  Mother Shaw?  Patience thinks it the
+best idea ever, there'll be no urging needed there."
+
+Pauline went up to bed that night feeling strangely happy.  For one
+thing the uncertainty was over, and if they set to work to make this
+summer full of interest, to break up the monotony and routine that
+Hilary found so irksome, the result must be satisfactory.  And lastly,
+there was the comforting conviction, that whatever displeasure her
+father had felt at first, at her taking the law into her own hands in
+such unforeseen fashion, had disappeared now; and he was not going to
+stay "outside of things," that was sure.
+
+The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Pauline ran up-stairs
+to the spare room.  She threw open the shutters of the four windows,
+letting in the fresh morning air.  The side windows faced west, and
+looked out across the pleasant tree-shaded yard to the church; those at
+the front faced south, overlooking the broad village street.
+
+In the bright sunlight, the big square room stood forth in all its prim
+orderliness.  "It is ugly," Pauline decided, shaking her head
+disapprovingly, but it had possibilities.  No room, with four such
+generous windows and--for the fire-board must come out--such a wide
+deep fireplace, could be without them.
+
+She turned, as her mother came in, duly attended by Patience.  "It is
+hideous, isn't it, mother?  The paper, I mean--and the carpet isn't
+much better.  It did very well, I suppose, for the visiting
+ministers--probably they're too busy thinking over their sermons to
+notice--but for Hilary--"
+
+Mrs. Shaw smiled.  "Perhaps you are right, dear.  As to the
+unattractiveness of the paper--"
+
+"We must repaper--that's sure; plain green, with a little touch of
+color in the border, and, oh, Mother Shaw, wouldn't a green and white
+matting be lovely?"
+
+"And expensive, Pauline."
+
+"It wouldn't take all the twenty-five, I'm sure.  Miranda'll do the
+papering, I know.  She did the study last year.  Mother, couldn't we
+have Jane in for the washing and ironing this week, and let Miranda get
+right at this room?  I'll help with the ironing, too."
+
+"I suppose so, dear.  Miranda is rather fussy about letting other
+people do her regular work, you know."
+
+"I'll ask her."
+
+"And remember, Pauline, each day is going to bring new demands--don't
+put all your eggs into one basket."
+
+"I won't.  We needn't spend anything on this room except for the paper
+and matting."
+
+Half an hour later, Pauline was on her way down to the village store
+for samples of paper.  She had already settled the matter with Miranda,
+over the wiping of the breakfast dishes.
+
+Miranda had lived with the Shaws ever since Pauline was a baby, and was
+a very important member of the family, both in her own and their
+opinion.  She was tall and gaunt, and somewhat severe looking; however,
+in her case, looks were deceptive.  It would never have occurred to
+Miranda that the Shaws' interests were not her interests--she
+considered herself an important factor in the upbringing of the three
+young people.  If she had a favorite, it was probably Hilary.
+
+"Hmn," she said, when Pauline broached the subject of the spare room,
+"what put that notion in your head, I'd like to know!  That paper ain't
+got a tear in it!"
+
+So Pauline went further, telling her something of Uncle Paul's letter
+and how they hoped to carry his suggestion out.
+
+Miranda stood still, her hands in the dish water--"That's your pa's own
+brother, ain't it?"
+
+Pauline nodded.  "And Miranda--"
+
+"I reckon he ain't much like the minister.  Well, me an' Sarah Jane
+ain't the least bit alike--if we are sisters.  I guess I can manage
+'bout the papering.  But it does go 'gainst me, having that sexton
+woman in.  Still, I reckon you can't be content, 'till we get started.
+Looking for the old gentleman up, later, be you?"
+
+"For whom?" Pauline asked.
+
+"Your pa's brother.  The minister's getting on, and the other one's
+considerable older, I understand."
+
+"I don't think he will be up," Pauline answered; she hadn't thought of
+that before.  Suppose he should come!  She wondered what he would be
+like.
+
+Half way down the street, Pauline was overtaken by her younger sister.
+"Are you going to get the new things now, Paul?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Of course not, just get some samples."
+
+"There's always such a lot of getting ready first," Patience sighed.
+"Paul, mother says I may go with you to-morrow afternoon."
+
+"All right," Pauline agreed.  "Only, you've got to promise not to 'hi
+yi' at Fanny all the way."
+
+"I won't--all the way."
+
+"And--Impatience?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You needn't say what we want the new paper for, or anything about what
+we are planning to do--in the store I mean."
+
+"Mr. Ward would be mighty interested."
+
+"I dare say."
+
+"Miranda says you're beginning to put on considerable airs, since
+you've been turning your hair up, Paul Shaw.  When I put my hair up,
+I'm going on being just as nice and friendly with folks, as before,
+you'll see."
+
+Pauline laughed, which was not at all to Patience's liking.  "All the
+same, mind what I say," she warned.
+
+"Can I help choose?" Patience asked, as they reached the store.
+
+"If you like."  Pauline went through to the little annex devoted to
+wall papers and carpetings.  It was rather musty and dull in there,
+Patience thought; she would have liked to make a slow round of the
+whole store, exchanging greetings and various confidences with the
+other occupants.  The store was a busy place on Saturday morning, and
+Patience knew every man, woman and child in Winton.
+
+They had got their samples and Pauline was lingering before a new line
+of summer dressgoods just received, when the young fellow in charge of
+the post-office and telegraph station called to her: "I say, Miss Shaw,
+here's a message just come for you."
+
+"For me--"  Pauline took it wonderingly.  Her hands were trembling, she
+had never received a telegram before--Was Hilary?  Then she laughed at
+herself.  To have sent a message, Mr. Boyd would have first been
+obliged to come in to Winton.
+
+Out on the sidewalk, she tore open the envelope, not heeding Patience's
+curious demands.  It was from her uncle, and read--
+
+"Have some one meet the afternoon train Saturday, am sending you an aid
+towards your summer's outings."
+
+"Oh," Pauline said, "do hurry, Patience.  I want to get home as fast as
+I can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BEGINNINGS
+
+Sunday afternoon, Pauline and Patience drove over to The Maples to see
+Hilary.  They stopped, as they went by, at the postoffice for Pauline
+to mail a letter to her uncle, which was something in the nature of a
+very enthusiastic postscript to the one she had written him Friday
+night, acknowledging and thanking him for his cheque, and telling him
+of the plans already under discussion.
+
+"And now," Patience said, as they turned out of the wide main street,
+"we're really off.  I reckon Hilary'll be looking for us, don't you?"
+
+"I presume she will," Pauline answered.
+
+"Maybe she'll want to come back with us."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe so.  She knows mother wants her to stay the week
+out.  Listen, Patty--"
+
+Patience sat up and took notice.  When people Pattied her, it generally
+meant they had a favor to ask, or something of the sort.
+
+"Remember, you're to be very careful not to let Hilary
+suspect--anything."
+
+"About the room and--?"
+
+"I mean--everything."
+
+"Won't she like it--all, when she does know?"
+
+"Well, rather!"
+
+Patience wriggled excitedly.  "It's like having a fairy godmother,
+isn't it?  And three wishes?  If you'd had three wishes, Paul, wouldn't
+you've chosen--"
+
+"You'd better begin quieting down, Patience, or Hilary can't help
+suspecting something."
+
+Patience drew a long breath.  "If she knew--she wouldn't stay a single
+day longer, would she?"
+
+"That's one reason why she mustn't know."
+
+"When will you tell her; or is mother going to?"
+
+"I don't know yet.  See here, Patience, you may drive--if you won't hi
+yi."
+
+"Please, Paul, let me, when we get to the avenue.  It's stupid coming
+to a place, like Fanny'd gone to sleep."
+
+"Not before--and only once then," Pauline stipulated, and Patience
+possessed her soul in at least a faint semblance of patience until they
+turned into the avenue of maples.  Then she suddenly tightened her hold
+on the reins, bounced excitedly up and down, crying sharply--"Hi yi!"
+
+Fanny instantly pricked up her ears, and, what was more to the purpose,
+actually started into what might almost have been called a trot.
+"There! you see!" Patience said proudly, as they turned into the yard.
+
+Hilary came down the porch steps.  "I heard Impatience urging her
+Rosinante on," she laughed.  "Why didn't you let her drive all the way,
+Paul?  I've been watching for you since dinner."
+
+"We've been pretty nearly since dinner getting here, it seems to me,"
+Patience declared.  "We had to wait for Paul to write a letter first
+to--"
+
+"Are you alone?" Pauline broke in hurriedly, asking the first question
+that came into her mind.
+
+Hilary smiled ruefully.  "Not exactly.  Mr. Boyd's asleep in the
+sitting-room, and Mrs. Boyd's taking a nap up-stairs in her own room."
+
+"You poor child!" Pauline said.  "Jump out, Patience!"
+
+"_Have_ you brought me something to read?  I've finished both the books
+I brought with me, and gone through a lot of magazines--queer old
+things, that Mrs. Boyd took years and years ago."
+
+"Then you've done very wrong," Pauline told her severely, leading Fanny
+over to a shady spot at one side of the yard and tying her to the
+fence--a quite unnecessary act, as nothing would have induced Fanny to
+take her departure unsolicited.
+
+"Guess!"  Pauline came back, carrying a small paper-covered parcel.
+"Father sent it to you.  He was over at Vergennes yesterday."
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, taking it eagerly and sitting down on the steps.
+"It's a book, of course."  Even more than her sisters, she had
+inherited her father's love of books, and a new book was an event at
+the parsonage.  "Oh," she cried again, taking off the paper and
+disclosing the pretty tartan cover within, "O Paul!  It's 'Penelope's
+Progress.'  Don't you remember those bits we read in those odd
+magazines Josie lent us?  And how we wanted to read it all?"
+
+Pauline nodded.  "I reckon mother told father about it; I saw her
+following him out to the gig yesterday morning."
+
+They went around to the little porch leading from Hilary's room, always
+a pleasant spot in the afternoons.
+
+"Why," Patience exclaimed, "it's like an out-door parlor, isn't it?"
+
+There was a big braided mat on the floor of the porch, its colors
+rather faded by time and use, but looking none the worse for that, a
+couple of rockers, a low stool, and a small table, covered with a bit
+of bright cretonne.  On it stood a blue and white pitcher filled with
+field flowers, beside it lay one or two magazines.  Just outside,
+extending from one of the porch posts to the limb of an old cherry
+tree, hung Hilary's hammock, gay with cushions.
+
+"Shirley did it yesterday afternoon," Hilary explained.  "She was over
+here a good while.  Mrs. Boyd let us have the things and the chintz for
+the cushions, Shirley made them, and we filled them with hay."
+
+Pauline, sitting on the edge of the low porch, looked about her with
+appreciative eyes.  "How pleasant and cozy it is, and after all, it
+only took a little time and trouble."
+
+Hilary laid her new book on the table.  "How soon do you suppose we can
+go over to the manor, Paul?  I imagine the Dayres have fixed it up
+mighty pretty.  Mr. Dayre was over here, last night.  He and Shirley
+are ever so--chummy.  He's Shirley Putnam Dayre, and she's Shirley
+Putnam Dayre, Junior.  So he calls her 'Junior' and she calls him
+'Senior.'  They're just like brother and sister.  He's an artist,
+they've been everywhere together.  And, Paul, they think Winton is
+delightful.  Mr. Dayre says the village street, with its great
+overhanging trees, and old-fashioned houses, is a picture in itself,
+particularly up at our end, with the church, all ivy-covered.  He means
+to paint the church sometime this summer."
+
+"It would make a pretty picture," Pauline said thoughtfully.  "Hilary,
+I wonder--"
+
+"So do I," Hilary said.  "Still, after all, one would like to see
+different places--"
+
+"And love only one," Pauline added; she turned to her sister.  "You are
+better, aren't you--already?"
+
+"I surely am.  Shirley's promised to take me out on the lake soon.
+She's going to be friends with us, Paul--really friends.  She says we
+must call her 'Shirley,' that she doesn't like 'Miss Dayre,' she hears
+it so seldom."
+
+"I think it's nice--being called 'Miss,'" Patience remarked, from where
+she had curled herself up in the hammock.  "I suppose she doesn't want
+it, because she can have it--I'd love to be called 'Miss Shaw.'"
+
+"Hilary," Pauline said, "would you mind very much, if you couldn't go
+away this summer?"
+
+"It wouldn't do much good if I did, would it?"
+
+"The not minding would--to mother and the rest of us--"
+
+"And if you knew what--" Patience began excitedly.
+
+"Don't you want to go find Captain, Impatience?" Pauline asked hastily,
+and Patience, feeling that she had made a false move, went with most
+unusual meekness.
+
+"Know what?" Hilary asked.
+
+"I--shouldn't wonder, if the child had some sort of scheme on hand,"
+Pauline said, she hoped she wasn't--prevaricating; after all, Patience
+probably did have some scheme in her head--she usually had.
+
+"I haven't thought much about going away the last day or so," Hilary
+said.  "I suppose it's the feeling better, and, then, the getting to
+know Shirley."
+
+"I'm glad of that."  Pauline sat silent for some moments; she was
+watching a fat bumble bee buzzing in and out among the flowers in the
+garden.  It was always still, over here at the farm, but to-day, it
+seemed a different sort of stillness, as if bees and birds and flowers
+knew that it was Sunday afternoon.
+
+"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you smiling to yourself about?"
+
+"Was I smiling?  I didn't know it.  I guess because it is so nice and
+peaceful here and because--Hilary, let's start a club--the 'S. W. F.
+Club.'"
+
+"The what?"
+
+"The 'S. W. F. Club.'  No, I shan't tell you what the letters stand
+for!  You've got to think it out for yourself."
+
+"A real club, Paul?"
+
+"Indeed, yes."
+
+"Who's to belong?"
+
+"Oh, lots of folks.  Josie and Tom, and you and I--and I think, maybe,
+mother and father."
+
+"Father!  To belong to a club!"
+
+"It was he who put the idea into my head."
+
+Hilary came to sit beside her sister on the step.  "Paul, I've a
+feeling that there is something--up!  And it isn't the barometer!"
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+"From you."
+
+Pauline sprang up.  "Feelings are very unreliable things to go by, but
+I've one just now--that if we don't hunt Impatience up pretty
+quick--there will be something doing."
+
+They found Patience sitting on the barn floor, utterly regardless of
+her white frock.  A whole family of kittens were about her.
+
+"Aren't they dears!" Patience demanded.
+
+"Mrs. Boyd says I may have my choice, to take home with me," Hilary
+said.  The parsonage cat had died the fall before, and had had no
+successor as yet.
+
+Patience held up a small coal-black one.  "Choose this, Hilary!
+Miranda says a black cat brings luck, though it don't look like we
+needed any black cats to bring--"
+
+"I like the black and white one," Pauline interposed, just touching
+Patience with the tip of her shoe.
+
+"Maybe Mrs. Boyd would give us each one, that would leave one for her,"
+Patience suggested cheerfully.
+
+"I imagine mother would have something to say to that," Pauline told
+her.  "Was Josie over yesterday, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary nodded.  "In the morning."
+
+As they were going back to the house, they met Mr. Boyd, on his way to
+pay his regular weekly visit to the far pasture.
+
+"Going to salt the colts?" Patience asked.  "Please, mayn't I come?"
+
+"There won't be time, Patience," Pauline said.
+
+"Not time!" Mr. Boyd objected, "I'll be back to supper, and you girls
+are going to stay to supper."  He carried Patience off with him,
+declaring that he wasn't sure he should let her go home at all, he
+meant to keep her altogether some day, and why not to-night?
+
+"Oh, I couldn't stay to-night," the child assured him earnestly.  "Of
+course, I couldn't ever stay for always, but by'n'by, when--there isn't
+so much going on at home--there's such a lot of things keep happening
+at home now, only don't tell Hilary, please--maybe, I could come make
+you a truly visit."
+
+Indoors, Pauline and Hilary found Mrs. Boyd down-stairs again from her
+nap.  "You ain't come after Hilary?" she questioned anxiously.
+
+"Only to see her," Pauline answered, and while she helped Mrs. Boyd get
+supper, she confided to her the story of Uncle Paul's letter and the
+plans already under way.
+
+Mrs. Boyd was much interested.  "Bless me, it'll do her a heap of good,
+you'll see, my dear.  I'm not sure, I don't agree with your uncle, when
+all's said and done, home's the best place for young folks."
+
+Just before Pauline and Patience went home that evening, Mrs. Boyd
+beckoned Pauline mysteriously into the best parlor.  "I always meant
+her to have them some day--she being my god-child--and maybe they'll do
+her as much good now, as any time, she'll want to fix up a bit now and
+then, most likely.  Shirley had on a string of them last night, but not
+to compare with these."  Mrs. Boyd was kneeling before a trunk in the
+parlor closet, and presently she put a little square shell box into
+Pauline's bands.  "Box and all, just like they came to me--you know,
+they were my grandmother's--but Hilary's a real careful sort of girl."
+
+"But, Mrs. Boyd--I'm not sure that mother would--"  Pauline knew quite
+well what was in the box.
+
+"That's all right!  You just slip them in Hilary's top drawer, where
+she'll come across them without expecting it.  Deary me, I never wear
+them, and as I say, I've always meant to give them to her some day."
+
+"She'll be perfectly delighted--and they'll look so pretty.  Hilary's
+got a mighty pretty neck, I think."  Pauline went out to the gig, the
+little box hidden carefully in her blouse, feeling that Patience was
+right and that these were very fairy-story sort of days.
+
+"You'll be over again soon, won't you?" Hilary urged.
+
+"We're going to be tre-men-dous-ly busy," Patience began, but her
+sister cut her short.
+
+"As soon as I can, Hilary.  Mind you go on getting better."
+
+
+By Monday noon, the spare room had lost its look of prim order.  In the
+afternoon, Pauline and her mother went down to the store to buy the
+matting.  There was not much choice to be had, and the only green and
+white there was, was considerably beyond the limit they had allowed
+themselves.
+
+"Never mind," Pauline said cheerfully, "plain white will look ever so
+cool and pretty--perhaps, the green would fade.  I'm going to believe
+so."
+
+Over a low wicker sewing-chair, she did linger longingly; it would look
+so nice beside one of the west windows.  She meant to place a low table
+for books and work between those side windows.  In the end, prudence
+won the day, and surely, the new paper and matting were enough to be
+grateful for in themselves.
+
+By the next afternoon the paper was on and the matting down.  Pauline
+was up garret rummaging, when she heard someone calling her from the
+foot of the stairs.  "I'm here, Josie," she called back, and her friend
+came running up.
+
+"What are you doing?" she asked.
+
+Pauline held up an armful of old-fashioned chintz.
+
+"Oh, how pretty!" Josie exclaimed.  "It makes one think of high-waisted
+dresses, and minuets and things like that."
+
+Pauline laughed.  "They were my great-grandmother's bed curtains."
+
+"Goodness!  What are you going to do with them?"
+
+"I'm not sure mother will let me do anything.  I came across them just
+now in looking for some green silk she said I might have to cover
+Hilary's pin-cushion with."
+
+"For the new room?  Patience has been doing the honors of the new paper
+and matting--it's going to be lovely, I think."
+
+Pauline scrambled to her feet, shaking out the chintz: "If only mother
+would--it's pink and green--let's go ask her."
+
+"What do you want to do with it, Pauline?" Mrs. Shaw asked.
+
+"I haven't thought that far--use it for draperies of some kind, I
+suppose," the girl answered.
+
+They were standing in the middle of the big, empty room.  Suddenly,
+Josie gave a quick exclamation, pointing to the bare corner between the
+front and side windows.  "Wouldn't a cozy corner be delightful--with
+cover and cushions of the chintz?"
+
+"May we, mother?" Pauline begged in a coaxing tone.
+
+"I suppose so, dear--only where is the bench part to come from?"
+
+"Tom'll make the frame for it, I'll go get him this minute," Josie
+answered.
+
+"And you might use that single mattress from up garret," Mrs. Shaw
+suggested.
+
+Pauline ran up to inspect it, and to see what other treasures might be
+forthcoming.  The garret was a big, shadowy place, extending over the
+whole house, and was lumber room, play place and general refuge, all in
+one.
+
+Presently, from under the eaves, she drew forward a little
+old-fashioned sewing-chair, discarded on the giving out of its cane
+seat.  "But I could tack a piece of burlap on and cover it with a
+cushion," Pauline decided, and bore it down in triumph to the new room,
+where Tom Brice was already making his measurements for the cozy corner.
+
+Josie was on the floor, measuring for the cover.  "Isn't it fun, Paul?
+Tom says it won't take long to do his part."
+
+Tom straightened himself, slipping his rule into his pocket.  "I don't
+see what you want it for, though," he said.
+
+"'Yours not to reason why--'" Pauline told him.  "We see, and so will
+Hilary.  Don't you and Josie want to join the new club--the 'S. W. F.
+Club'?"
+
+"Society of Willing Females, I suppose?" Tom remarked.
+
+"It sounds like some sort of sewing circle," Josie said.
+
+Pauline sat down in one of the wide window places.  "I'm not sure it
+might not take in both.  It is--'The Seeing Winton First Club.'"
+
+Josie looked as though she didn't quite understand, but Tom whistled
+softly.  "What else have you been doing for the past fifteen years, if
+you please, ma'am?" he asked quizzically.
+
+Pauline laughed.  "One ought to know a place rather thoroughly in
+fifteen years, I suppose; but--I'm hoping we can make it seem at least
+a little bit new and different this summer--for Hilary.  You see, we
+shan't be able to send her away, and so, I thought, perhaps, if we
+tried looking at Winton--with new eyes--"
+
+"I see," Josie cried.  "I think it's a splendiferous ideal"
+
+"And, I thought, if we formed a sort of club among ourselves and worked
+together--"
+
+"Listen," Josie interrupted again, "we'll make it a condition of
+membership, that each one must, in turn, think up something pleasant to
+do."
+
+"Is the membership to be limited?" Tom asked.
+
+Pauline smiled.  "It will be so--necessarily--won't it?"  For Winton
+was not rich in young people.
+
+"There will be enough of us," Josie declared hopefully.
+
+"Like the model dinner party?" her brother asked.  "Not less than the
+Graces, nor more than the Muses."
+
+And so the new club was formed then and there.  There were to be no
+regular and formal meetings, no dues, nor fines, and each member was to
+consider himself, or herself, an active member of the programme
+committee.
+
+Tom, as the oldest member of their immediate circle of friends, was
+chosen president before that first meeting adjourned; no other officers
+were considered necessary at the time.  And being president, to him was
+promptly delegated the honor--despite his vigorous protests--of
+arranging for their first outing and notifying the other members--yet
+to be.
+
+"But," he expostulated, "what's a fellow to think up--in a hole like
+this?"
+
+"Winton isn't a hole!" his sister protested.  It was one of the chief
+occupations of Josie's life at present, to contradict all such
+heretical utterances on Tom's part.  He was to go away that fall to
+commence his studies for the medical profession, for it was Dr. Brice's
+great desire that, later, his son should assist him in his practice.
+But, so far, Tom though wanting to follow his father's profession, was
+firm in his determination, not to follow it in Winton.
+
+"And remember," Pauline said, as the three went down-stairs together,
+"that it's the first step that counts--and to think up something very
+delightful, Tom."
+
+"It mustn't be a picnic, I suppose?  Hilary won't be up to picnics yet
+awhile."
+
+"N-no, and we want to begin soon.  She'll be back Friday, I think,"
+Pauline answered.
+
+By Wednesday night the spare room was ready for the expected guest.
+"It's as if someone had waved a fairy wand over it, isn't it?" Patience
+said delightedly.  "Hilary'll be so surprised."
+
+"I think she will and--pleased."  Pauline gave one of the cushions in
+the cozy corner a straightening touch, and drew the window
+shades--Miranda had taken them down and turned them--a little lower.
+
+"It's a regular company room, isn't it?" Patience said joyously.
+
+The minister drove over to The Maples himself on Friday afternoon to
+bring Hilary home.
+
+"Remember," Patience pointed a warning forefinger at him, just as he
+was starting, "not a single solitary hint!"
+
+"Not a single solitary one," he promised.
+
+As he turned out of the gate.  Patience drew a long breath.  "Well,
+he's off at last!  But, oh, dear, however can we wait 'til he gets
+back?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BEDELIA
+
+It was five o'clock that afternoon when Patience, perched, a little
+white-clad sentry, on the gate-post, announced joyously--"They're
+coming!  They're coming!"
+
+Patience was as excited as if the expected "guest" were one in fact, as
+well as name.  It was fun to be playing a game of make-believe, in
+which the elders took part.
+
+As the gig drew up before the steps, Hilary looked eagerly out.  "Will
+you tell me," she demanded, "why father insisted on coming 'round the
+lower road, by the depot--he didn't stop, and he didn't get any parcel?
+And when I asked him, he just laughed and looked mysterious."
+
+"He went," Pauline answered, "because we asked him to--company usually
+comes by train--real out-of-town company, you know."
+
+"Like visiting ministers and returned missionaries," Patience explained.
+
+Hilary looked thoroughly bewildered.  "But are you expecting company?
+You must be," she glanced from one to another, "you're all dressed up,"
+
+"We were expecting some, dear," her mother told her, "but she has
+arrived."
+
+"Don't you see?  You're it!" Patience danced excitedly about her sister.
+
+"I'm the company!" Hilary said wonderingly.  Then her eyes lighted up.
+"I understand!  How perfectly dear of you all."
+
+Mrs. Shaw patted the hand Hilary slipped into hers.  "You have come
+back a good deal better than you went, my dear.  The change has done
+you good."
+
+"And it didn't turn out a stupid--half-way affair, after all," Hilary
+declared.  "I've had a lovely time.  Only, I simply had to come home, I
+felt somehow--that--that--"
+
+"We were expecting company?" Pauline laughed.  "And you wanted to be
+here?"
+
+"I reckon that was it," Hilary agreed.  As she sat there, resting a
+moment, before going up-stairs, she hardly seemed the same girl who had
+gone away so reluctantly only eight days before.  The change of scene,
+the outdoor life, the new friendship, bringing with it new interests,
+had worked wonders,
+
+"And now," Pauline suggested, taking up her sister's valise, "perhaps
+you would like to go up to your room--visitors generally do."
+
+"To rest after your journey, you know," Patience prompted.  Patience
+believed in playing one's part down to the minutest detail.
+
+"Thank you," Hilary answered, with quite the proper note of formality
+in her voice, "if you don't mind; though I did not find the trip as
+fatiguing as I had expected."
+
+But from the door, she turned back to give her mother a second and most
+uncompany-like hug.  "It is good to be home, Mother Shaw!  And please,
+you don't want to pack me off again anywhere right away--at least, all
+by myself?"
+
+"Not right away," her mother answered, kissing her.
+
+"I guess you will think it is good to be home, when you
+know--everything," Patience announced, accompanying her sisters
+up-stairs, but on the outside of the banisters.
+
+"Patty!" Pauline protested laughingly--"Was there ever such a child for
+letting things out!"
+
+"I haven't!" the child exclaimed, "only now--it can't make any
+difference."
+
+"There is mystery in the very air!" Hilary insisted.  "Oh, what have
+you all been up to?"
+
+"You're not to go in there!" Patience cried, as Hilary stopped before
+the door of her own and Pauline's room.
+
+"Of course you're not," Pauline told her.  "It strikes me, for
+company--you're making yourself very much at home!  Walking into
+peoples' rooms."  She led the way along the hall to the spare room,
+throwing the door wide open.
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, then stood quite still on the threshold, looking
+about her with wide, wondering eyes.
+
+The spare room was grim and gray no longer.  Hilary felt as if she must
+be in some strange, delightful dream.  The cool green of the wall
+paper, with the soft touch of pink in ceiling and border, the fresh
+white matting, the cozy corner opposite--with its delicate
+old-fashioned chintz drapery and big cushions, the new toilet
+covers--white over green, the fresh curtains at the windows, the
+cushioned window seats, the low table and sewing-chair, even her own
+narrow white bed, with its new ruffled spread, all went to make a room
+as strange to her, as it was charming and unexpected.
+
+"Oh," she said again, turning to her mother, who had followed them
+up-stairs, and stood waiting just outside the door.  "How perfectly
+lovely it all is--but it isn't for me?"
+
+"Of course it is," Patience said.  "Aren't you company--you aren't just
+Hilary now, you're 'Miss Shaw' and you're here on a visit; and there's
+company asked to supper to-morrow night, and it's going to be such fun!"
+
+Hilary's color came and went.  It was something deeper and better than
+fun.  She understood now why they had done this--why Pauline had said
+that--about her not going away; there was a sudden lump in the girl's
+throat--she was glad, so glad, she had said that downstairs----about
+not wanting to go away.
+
+And when her mother and Patience had gone down-stairs again and Pauline
+had begun to unpack the valise, as she had unpacked it a week ago at
+The Maples, Hilary sat in the low chair by one of the west windows, her
+hands folded in her lap, looking about this new room of hers.
+
+"There," Pauline said presently, "I believe that's all now--you'd
+better lie down, Hilary--I'm afraid you're tired."
+
+"No, I'm not; at any rate, not very.  I'll lie down if you like, only I
+know I shan't be able to sleep."
+
+Pauline lowered the pillow and threw a light cover over her.  "There's
+something in the top drawer of the dresser," she said, "but you're not
+to look at it until you've lain down at least half an hour."
+
+"I feel as if I were in an enchanted palace,", Hilary said, "with so
+many delightful surprises being sprung on me all the while." After
+Pauline had gone, she lay watching the slight swaying of the wild roses
+in the tall jar on the hearth.  The wild roses ran rampant in the
+little lane leading from the back of the church down past the old
+cottage where Sextoness Jane lived.  Jane had brought these with her
+that morning, as her contribution to the new room.
+
+To Hilary, as to Patience, it seemed as if a magic wand had been waved,
+transforming the old dull room into a place for a girl to live and
+dream in.  But for her, the name of the wand was Love.
+
+There must be no more impatient longings, no fretful repinings, she
+told herself now.  She must not be slow to play her part in this new
+game that had been originated all for her.
+
+The half-hour up, she slipped from the bed and began unbuttoning her
+blue-print frock.  Being company, it stood to reason she must dress for
+supper.  But first, she must find out what was in the upper drawer.
+
+The first glimpse of the little shell box, told her that.  There were
+tears in Hilary's gray eyes, as she stood slipping the gold beads
+slowly through her fingers.  How good everyone was to her; for the
+first time some understanding of the bright side even of sickness--and
+she had not been really sick, only run-down--and, yes, she had been
+cross and horrid, lots of times--came to her.
+
+"I'll go over just as soon as I can and thank her," the girl thought,
+clasping the beads about her neck, "and I'll keep them always and
+always."
+
+A little later, she came down-stairs all in white, a spray of the pink
+and white wild roses in her belt, her soft, fair hair freshly brushed
+and braided.  She had been rather neglectful of her hair lately.
+
+There was no one on the front piazza but her father, and he looked up
+from his book with a smile of pleasure.  "My dear, how well you are
+looking!  It is certainly good to see you at home again, and quite your
+old self."
+
+Hilary came to sit on the arm of his chair.  "It is good to be at home
+again.  I suppose you know all the wonderful surprises I found waiting
+me?"
+
+"Supper's ready," Patience proclaimed from the doorway.  "Please come,
+because--" she caught herself up, putting a hand into Hilary's, "I'll
+show you where to sit, Miss Shaw."
+
+Hilary laughed.  "How old are you, my dear?" she asked, in the tone
+frequently used by visiting ministers.
+
+"I'm a good deal older than I'm treated generally," Patience answered.
+"Do you like Winton?"
+
+"I am sure I shall like it very much."  Hilary slipped into the chair
+Patience drew forward politely.  "The company side of the table--sure
+enough," she laughed.
+
+"It isn't proper to say things to yourself sort of low down in your
+voice," Patience reproved her, then at a warning glance from her mother
+subsided into silence as the minister took his place.
+
+For to-night, at least, Miranda had amply fulfilled Patience's hopes,
+as to company suppers.  And she, too, played her part in the new game,
+calling Hilary "Miss," and never by any chance intimating that she had
+seen her before.
+
+"Did you go over to the manor to see Shirley?" Patience asked.
+
+Hilary shook her head.  "I promised her Pauline and I would be over
+soon.  We may have Fanny some afternoon, mayn't we, father?"
+
+Patience's blue eyes danced.  "They can't have Fanny, can they,
+father?" she nodded at him knowingly.
+
+Hilary eyed her questioningly.  "What is the matter, Patience?"
+
+"Nothing is the matter with her," Pauline said hurriedly.  "Don't pay
+any attention to her."
+
+"Only, if you would hurry," Patience implored.  "I--I can't wait much
+longer!"
+
+"Wait!" Hilary asked.  "For what?"
+
+Patience pushed back her chair.  "For--Well, if you just knew what for,
+Hilary Shaw, you'd do some pretty tall hustling!"
+
+"Patience!" her father said reprovingly.
+
+"May I be excused, mother?" Patience asked.  "I'll wait out on the
+porch."
+
+And Mrs. Shaw replied most willingly that she might.
+
+"Is there anything more--to see, I mean, not to eat?" Hilary asked.  "I
+don't see how there can be."
+
+"Are you through?" Pauline answered.  "Because, if you are, I'll show
+you."
+
+"It was sent to Paul," Patience called, from the hall door.  "But she
+says, of course, it was meant for us all; and I think, myself, she's
+right about that."
+
+"Is it--alive?" Hilary asked.
+
+"'It' was--before supper," Pauline told her.  "I certainly hope nothing
+has happened to--'it' since then."
+
+"A dog?" Hilary suggested.
+
+"Wait and see; by the way, where's that kitten?"
+
+"She's to follow in a few days; she was a bit too young to leave home
+just yet."
+
+"I've got the sugar!" Patience called.
+
+Hilary stopped short at the foot of the porch steps.  Patience's
+remark, if it had not absolutely let the cat out of the bag, had at
+least opened the bag.  "Paul, it can't be--"
+
+"In the Shaw's dictionary, at present, there doesn't appear to be any
+such word as can't," Pauline declared.  "Come on---after all, you know,
+the only way to find out--is to find out."
+
+Patience had danced on ahead down the path to the barn.  She stood
+waiting for them now in the broad open doorway, her whole small person
+one animated exclamation point, while Towser, just home from a
+leisurely round of afternoon visits, came forward to meet Hilary,
+wagging a dignified welcome.
+
+"If you don't hurry, I'll 'hi yi' you, like I do Fanny!" Patience
+warned them.  She moved to one side, to let Hilary go on into the barn.
+"Now!" she demanded, "isn't that something more?"
+
+From the stall beside Fanny's, a horse's head reached inquiringly out
+for the sugar with which already she had come to associate the frequent
+visits of these new friends.  She was a pretty, well-made, little mare,
+light sorrel, with white markings, and with a slender, intelligent face.
+
+Hilary stood motionless, too surprised to speak.
+
+"Her name's Bedelia," Patience said, doing the honors.  "She's very
+clever, she knows us all already.  Fanny hasn't been very polite to
+her, and she knows it--Bedelia does, I mean--sometimes, when Fanny
+isn't looking, I've caught Bedelia sort of laughing at her--and I don't
+blame her one bit.  And, oh, Hilary, she can go--there's no need to 'hi
+yi' her."
+
+"But--" Hilary turned to Pauline.
+
+"Uncle Paul sent her," Pauline explained.  "She came last Saturday
+afternoon.  One of the men from Uncle Paul's place in the country
+brought her.  She was born and bred at River Lawn--that's Uncle Paul's
+place--he says."
+
+Hilary stroked the glossy neck gently, if Pauline had said the Sultan
+of Turkey, instead of Uncle Paul, she could hardly have been more
+surprised.  "Uncle Paul--sent her to you!" she said slowly.
+
+"To _us_."
+
+"Bless me, that isn't all he sent," Patience exclaimed.  It seemed to
+Patience that they never would get to the end of their story.  "You
+just come look at this, Hilary Shaw!" she ran on through the opening
+connecting carriage-house with stable.
+
+"Oh!" Hilary cried, following with Pauline.
+
+Beside the minister's shabby old gig, stood the smartest of smart
+traps, and hanging on the wall behind it, a pretty russet harness, with
+silver mountings.
+
+Hilary sat down on an old saw horse; she felt again as though she must
+be dreaming.
+
+"There isn't another such cute rig in town, Jim says so," Patience
+said.  Jim was the stable boy.  "It beats Bell Ward's all to pieces."
+
+"But why--I mean, how did Uncle Paul ever come to send it to us?"
+Hilary said.  Of course one had always known that there
+was--somewhere--a person named Uncle Paul; but he had appeared about as
+remote and indefinite a being as--that same Sultan of Turkey, for
+instance.
+
+"After all, why shouldn't he?" Pauline answered.
+
+"But I don't believe he would've if Paul had not written to him that
+time," Patience added.  "Maybe next time I tell you anything, you'll
+believe me, Hilary Shaw."
+
+But Hilary was staring at Pauline.  "You didn't write to Uncle Paul?"
+
+"I'm afraid I did."
+
+"Was--was that the letter--you remember, that afternoon?"
+
+"I rather think I do remember."
+
+"Paul, how did you ever dare?"
+
+"I was in the mood to dare anything that day."
+
+"And did he answer; but of course he did."
+
+"Yes--he answered.  Though not right away."
+
+"Was it a nice letter?  Did he mind your having written?  Paul, you
+didn't ask him to send you--these," Hilary waved her hand rather
+vaguely.
+
+"Hardly--he did that all on his own.  It wasn't a bad sort of letter,
+I'll tell you about it by and by.  We can go to the manor in style now,
+can't we--even if father can't spare Fanny.  Bedelia's perfectly
+gentle, I've driven her a little ways once or twice, to make sure.
+Father insisted on going with me.  We created quite a sensation down
+street, I assure you."
+
+"And Mrs. Dane said," Patience cut in, "that in her young days,
+clergymen didn't go kiting 'bout the country in such high-fangled rigs."
+
+"Never mind what Mrs. Dane said, or didn't say," Pauline told her.
+
+"Miranda says, what Mrs. Dane hasn't got to say on any subject,
+wouldn't make you tired listening to it."
+
+"Patience, if you don't stop repeating what everyone says, I shall--"
+
+"If you speak to mother--then you'll be repeating," Patience declared.
+"Maybe, I oughtn't to have said those things before--company."
+
+"I think we'd better go back to the house now," Pauline suggested.
+
+"Sextoness Jane says," Patience remarked, "that she'd have sure admired
+to have a horse and rig like that, when she was a girl.  She says, she
+doesn't suppose you'll be passing by her house very often."
+
+"And, now, please," Hilary pleaded, when she had been established in
+her hammock on the side porch, with her mother in her chair close by,
+and Pauline sitting on the steps, "I want to hear--everything.  I'm
+what Miranda calls 'fair mazed.'"
+
+So Pauline told nearly everything, blurring some of the details a
+little and getting to that twenty-five dollars a month, with which they
+were to do so much, as quickly as possible.
+
+"O Paul, really," Hilary sat up among her cushions--"Why, it'll
+be--riches, won't it?"
+
+"It seems so."
+
+"But--Oh, I'm afraid you've spent all the first twenty-five on me; and
+that's not a fair division--is it, Mother Shaw?"
+
+"We used it quite according to Hoyle," Pauline insisted.  "We got our
+fun that way, didn't we, Mother Shaw?"
+
+Their mother smiled.  "I know I did."
+
+"All the same, after this, you've simply got to 'drink fair, Betsy,' so
+remember," Hilary warned them.
+
+"Bedtime, Patience," Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience got slowly out of her
+big, wicker armchair.
+
+"I did think--seeing there was company,--that probably you'd like me to
+stay up a little later to-night."
+
+"If the 'company' takes my advice, she'll go, too," her mother answered.
+
+"The 'company' thinks she will."  Hilary slipped out of the hammock.
+"Mother, do you suppose Miranda's gone to bed yet?"
+
+"I'll go see," Patience offered, willing to postpone the inevitable for
+even those few moments longer.
+
+"What do you want with Miranda?" Pauline asked.
+
+"To do something for me."
+
+"Can't I do it?"
+
+"No--and it must be done to-night.  Mother, what are you smiling over?"
+
+"I thought it would be that way, dear."
+
+"Miranda's  coming,"  Patience  called.  "She'd just taken her back
+hair down, and she's waiting to twist it up again.  She's got awful
+funny back hair."
+
+"Patience!  Patience!" her mother said reprovingly.
+
+"I mean, there's such a little--"
+
+"Go up-stairs and get yourself ready for bed at once."
+
+Miranda was waiting in the spare room.  "You ain't took sick, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary shook her head.  "Please, Miranda, if it wouldn't be too much
+trouble, will you bring Pauline's bed in here?"
+
+"I guessed as much," Miranda said, moving Hilary's bed to one side.
+
+"Hilary--wouldn't you truly rather have a room to yourself--for a
+change?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I have had one to myself--for eight days--and, now I'm going back to
+the old way."  Sitting among the cushions of the cozy corner, Hilary
+superintended operations, and when the two single white beds were
+standing side by side, in their accustomed fashion, the covers turned
+back for the night, she nodded in satisfied manner.  "Thank you so
+much, Miranda; that's as it should be.  Go get your things, Paul.
+To-morrow, you must move in regularly.  Upper drawer between us, and
+the rest share and share alike, you know."
+
+Patience, who had hit upon the happy expedient of braiding her
+hair--braids, when there were a lot of them, took a long time--got
+slowly up from the hearth rug, her head a sight to behold, with its
+tiny, hornlike red braids sticking out in every direction.  "I suppose
+I'd better be going.  I wish I had someone to talk to, after I'd gone
+to bed."  And a deep sigh escaped her.
+
+Pauline kissed the wistful little face.  "Never mind, old girl, you
+know you'd never stay awake long enough to talk to anyone."
+
+She and Hilary stayed awake talking, however, until Pauline's prudence
+got the better of her joy in having her sister back in more senses than
+one.  It was so long since they had had such a delightful bedtime talk.
+
+"Seeing Winton First Club," Hilary said musingly.  "Paul, you're ever
+so clever.  Shirley insisted those letters stood for 'Suppression of
+Woman's Foibles Club'; and Mr. Dayre suggested they meant, 'Sweet Wild
+Flowers.'"
+
+"You've simply got to go to sleep now, Hilary, else mother'll  come and
+take me away."
+
+Hilary sighed blissfully.  "I'll never say again--that nothing ever
+happens to us."
+
+
+Tom and Josie came to supper the next night.  Shirley was there, too,
+she had stopped in on her way to the post-office with her father that
+afternoon, to ask how Hilary was, and been captured and kept to supper
+and the first club meeting that followed.
+
+Hilary had been sure she would like to join, and Shirley's prompt and
+delighted acceptance of their invitation proved her right.
+
+"I've only got five names on my list," Tom said, as the young folks
+settled themselves on the porch after supper.  "I suppose we'll think
+of others later."
+
+"That'll make ten, counting us five, to begin with," Pauline said.
+
+"Bell and Jack Ward," Tom took out his list, "the Dixon boys and Edna
+Ray.  That's all."
+
+"I'd just like to know where I come in, Tom Brice!" Patience demanded,
+her voice vibrant with indignation.
+
+"Upon my word!  I didn't suppose--"
+
+"I am to belong!  Ain't I, Paul?"
+
+"But Patty--"
+
+"If you're going to say no, you needn't Patty me!"
+
+"We'll see what mother thinks," Hilary suggested.  "You wouldn't want
+to be the only little girl to belong?"
+
+"I shouldn't mind," Patience assured her, then feeling pretty sure that
+Pauline was getting ready to tell her to run away, she decided to
+retire on her own account.  That blissful time, when she should be
+"Miss Shaw," had one drawback, which never failed to assert itself at
+times like these--there would be no younger sister subject to her
+authority.
+
+"Have you decided what we are to do?" Pauline asked Tom, when Patience
+had gone.
+
+"I should say I had.  You'll be up to a ride by next Thursday, Hilary?
+Not a very long ride."
+
+"I'm sure I shall," Hilary answered eagerly.  "Where are we going?"
+
+"That's telling."
+
+"He won't even tell me," Josie said.
+
+Tom's eyes twinkled.  "You're none of you to know until next Thursday.
+Say, at four o'clock."
+
+"Oh," Shirley said, "I think it's going to be the nicest club that ever
+was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PERSONALLY CONDUCTED
+
+"Am I late?" Shirley asked, as Pauline came down the steps to meet her
+Thursday afternoon.
+
+"No, indeed, it still wants five minutes to four.  Will you come in, or
+shall we wait out here?  Hilary is under bond not to make her
+appearance until the last minute."
+
+"Out here, please," Shirley answered, sitting down on the upper step.
+"What a delightful old garden this is.  Father has at last succeeded in
+finding me my nag, horses appear to be at a premium in Winton, and even
+if he isn't first cousin to your Bedelia, I'm coming to take you and
+Hilary to drive some afternoon.  Father got me a surrey, because,
+later, we're expecting some of the boys up, and we'll need a two-seated
+rig."
+
+"We're coming to take you driving, too," Pauline said.  "Just at
+present, it doesn't seem as if the summer would be long enough for all
+the things we mean to do in it."
+
+"And you don't know yet, what we are to do this afternoon?"
+
+"Only, that it's to be a drive and, afterwards, supper at the Brices'.
+That's all Josie, herself, knows about it.  Tom had to take her and
+Mrs. Brice into so much of his confidence."
+
+Through the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon, came the notes of
+a horn, sounding nearer and nearer.  A moment later, a stage drawn by
+two of the hotel horses turned in at the parsonage drive at a fine
+speed, drawing up before the steps where Pauline and Shirley were
+sitting, with considerable nourish.  Beside the driver sat Tom, in long
+linen duster, the megaphone belonging to the school team in one hand.
+Along each side of the stage was a length of white cloth, on which was
+lettered--
+
+      SEEING WINTON STAGE
+
+As the stage stopped, Tom sprang down, a most businesslike air on his
+boyish face.
+
+"This is the Shaw residence, I believe?" he asked, consulting a piece
+of paper.
+
+"I--I reckon so," Pauline answered, too taken aback to know quite what
+she was saying.
+
+"All right!" Tom said.  "I understand--"
+
+"Then it's a good deal more than I do," Pauline cut in.
+
+"That there are several young people here desirous of joining our
+little sight-seeing trip this afternoon."
+
+From around the corner of the house at that moment peeped a small
+freckled face, the owner of which was decidedly very desirous of
+joining that trip.  Only a deep sense of personal injury kept Patience
+from coming forward,--she wasn't going where she wasn't wanted--but
+some day--they'd see!
+
+Shirley clapped her hands delightedly.  "How perfectly jolly!  Oh, I am
+glad you asked me to join the club."
+
+"I'll go tell Hilary!" Pauline said.  "Tom, however--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss?"
+
+Pauline laughed and turned away.
+
+"Oh, I say, Paul," Tom dropped his mask of pretended dignity, "let the
+Imp come with us--this time."
+
+Pauline looked doubtful.  She, as well as Tom, had caught sight of that
+small flushed face, on which longing and indignation had been so
+plainly written.  "I'm not sure that mother will--" she began, "But
+I'll see."
+
+"Tell her--just this first time," Tom urged, and Shirley added, "She
+would love it so."
+
+"Mother says," Pauline reported presently, "that Patience may go _this_
+time--only we'll have to wait while she gets ready."
+
+From an upper window came an eager voice.  "I'm most ready now!"
+
+"She'll never forget it--as long as she lives," Shirley said, "and if
+she hadn't gone she would never've forgotten _that_."
+
+"Nor let us--for one while," Pauline remarked--"I'd a good deal rather
+work with than against that young lady."
+
+Hilary came down then, looking ready and eager for the outing.  She had
+been out in the trap with Pauline several times; once, even as far as
+the manor to call upon Shirley.
+
+"Why," she exclaimed, "you've brought the Folly!  Tom, how ever did you
+manage it?"
+
+"Beg pardon, Miss?"
+
+Hilary shrugged her shoulders, coming nearer for a closer inspection of
+the big lumbering stage.  It had been new, when the present proprietor
+of the hotel, then a young man, now a middle-aged one, had come into
+his inheritance.  Fresh back from a winter in town, he had indulged
+high hopes of booming his sleepy little village as a summer resort, and
+had ordered the stage--since christened the Folly--for the convenience
+and enjoyment of the guests--who had never come.  A long idle lifetime
+the Folly had passed in the hotel carriage-house; used so seldom, as to
+make that using a village event, but never allowed to fall into
+disrepair, through some fancy of its owner.
+
+As Tom opened the door at the back now, handing his guests in with much
+ceremony, Hilary laughed softly.  "It doesn't seem quite--respectful to
+actually sit down in the poor old thing.  I wonder, if it's more
+indignant, or pleased, at being dragged out into the light of day for a
+parcel of young folks?"
+
+"'Butchered to make a Roman Holiday'?" Shirley laughed.
+
+At that moment Patience appeared, rather breathless--but not half as
+much so as Miranda, who had been drawn into service, and now appeared
+also--"You ain't half buttoned up behind, Patience!" she protested,
+"and your hair ribbon's not tied fit to be seen.--My sakes, to think of
+anyone ever having named that young one _Patience_!"
+
+"I'll overhaul her, Miranda," Pauline comforted her.  "Come here,
+Patience."
+
+"Please, I am to sit up in front with you, ain't I, Tom?" Patience
+urged.  "You and I always get on so beautifully together, you know."
+
+Tom relaxed a second time.  "I don't see how I can refuse after that,"
+and the over-hauling process being completed, Patience climbed up to
+the high front seat, where she beamed down on the rest with such a look
+of joyful content that they could only smile back in response.
+
+From the doorway, came a warning voice.  "Not too far, Tom, for Hilary;
+and remember, Patience, what you have promised me."
+
+"All right, Mrs. Shaw," Tom assured her, and Patience nodded her head
+assentingly.
+
+From the parsonage, they went first to the doctor's.  Josie was waiting
+for them at the gate, and as they drew up before it, with horn blowing,
+and horses almost prancing--the proprietor of the hotel had given them
+his best horses, in honor of the Folly--she stared from her brother to
+the stage, with its white placard, with much the same look of wonder in
+her eyes as Pauline and Hilary had shown.
+
+"Miss Brice?"  Tom was consulting his list again.
+
+"So that's what you've been concocting, Tom Brice!" Josie answered.
+
+Tom's face was as sober as his manner.  "I am afraid we are a little
+behind scheduled time, being unavoidably delayed."
+
+"He means they had to wait for me to get ready," Patience explained.
+"You didn't expect to see me along, did you, Josie?"  And she smiled
+blandly.
+
+"I don't know what I did expect--certainly, not this."  Josie took her
+place in the stage, not altogether sure whether the etiquette of the
+occasion allowed of her recognizing its other inmates, or not.
+
+But Pauline nodded politely.  "Good afternoon.  Lovely day, isn't it?"
+she remarked, while Shirley asked, if she had ever made this trip
+before.
+
+"Not in this way," Josie answered.  "I've never ridden in the Folly
+before.  Have you, Paul?"
+
+"Once, from the depot to the hotel, when I was a youngster, about
+Impatience's age.  You remember, Hilary?"
+
+"Of course I do.  Uncle Jerry took me up in front."  Uncle Jerry was
+the name the owner of the stage went by in Winton.  "He'd had a lot of
+Boston people up, and had been showing them around."
+
+"This reminds me of the time father and I did our own New York in one
+of those big 'Seeing New York' motors," Shirley said.  "I came home
+feeling almost as if we'd been making a trip 'round some foreign city."
+
+"Tom can't make Winton seem foreign," Josie declared.
+
+There were three more houses to stop at, lower down the street.  From
+windows and porches all along the route, laughing, curious faces stared
+wonderingly after them, while a small body-guard of children sprang up
+as if by magic to attend them on their way.  This added greatly to the
+delight of Patience, who smiled condescendingly down upon various
+intimates, blissfully conscious of the envy she was exciting in their
+breasts.  It was delightful to be one of the club for a time, at least.
+
+"And now, if you please, Ladies and Gentlemen," Tom had closed the door
+to upon the last of his party, "we will drive first to The Vermont
+House, a hostelry well known throughout the surrounding country, and
+conducted by one of Vermont's best known and honored sons."
+
+"Hear!  Hear!" Jack Ward cried.  "I say, Tom, get that off again where
+Uncle Jerry can hear it, and you'll always be sure of his vote."
+
+They had reached the rambling old hotel, from the front porch of which
+Uncle Jerry himself, surveyed them genially.
+
+"Ladies and Gentlemen," standing up, Tom turned to face the occupants
+of the stage, his megaphone, carried merely as a badge of office,
+raised like a conductor's baton, "I wish to impress upon your minds
+that the building now before you--liberal rates for the season--is
+chiefly remarkable for never having sheltered the Father of His
+Country."
+
+"Now how do you know that?" Uncle Jerry protested.   "Ain't that North
+Chamber called the 'Washington room'?"
+
+"Oh, but that's because the first proprietor's first wife occupied that
+room--and she was famous for her Washington pie," Tom answered readily.
+"I assure you, sir, that any and all information which I shall have the
+honor to impart to these strangers within our gates may be relied upon
+for its accuracy."  He gave the driver the word, and the Folly
+continued on its way, stopping presently before a little
+story-and-a-half cottage not far below the hotel and on a level with
+the street.
+
+"This cottage, my young friends," Tom said impressively, "should
+be--and I trust is--enshrined deep within the hearts of all true
+Wintonites.  Latterly, it has come to be called the Barker cottage, but
+its real title is 'The Flag House'; so called, because from that humble
+porch, the first Stars and Stripes ever seen in Winton flung its colors
+to the breeze.  The original flag is still in possession of a lineal
+descendant of its first owner, who is, unfortunately, not an inhabitant
+of this town."  The boyish gravity of tone and manner was not all
+assumed now.
+
+No one spoke for a moment; eleven pairs of young eyes were looking out
+at the little weather-stained building with new interest.  "I thought,"
+Bell Ward said at last, "that they called it the _flag_ place, because
+someone of that name had used to live there."
+
+"So did I," Hilary said.
+
+As the stage moved on, Shirley leaned back for another look.  "I shall
+get father to come and sketch it," she said.  "Isn't it the quaintest
+old place?"
+
+"We will now proceed," Tom announced, "to the village green, where I
+shall have the pleasure of relating to you certain anecdotes regarding
+the part it played in the early life of this interesting old village."
+
+"Not too many, old man," Tracy Dixon suggested hurriedly, "or it may
+prove a one-sided pleasure."
+
+The green lay in the center of the town,--a wide, open space, with
+flagstaff in the middle; fine old elms bordered it on all four sides.
+The Vermont House faced it, on the north, and on the opposite side
+stood the general store, belonging to Mr. Ward, with one or two smaller
+places of business.
+
+"The business section" of the town, Tom called it, and quite failed to
+notice Tracy's lament that he had not brought his opera glasses with
+him.  "Really, you know," Tracy explained to his companions, "I should
+have liked awfully to see it.  I'm mighty interested in business
+sections."
+
+"Cut that out," his brother Bob commanded, "the chap up in front is
+getting ready to hold forth again."
+
+They were simple enough, those anecdotes, that "the chap up in front"
+told them; but in the telling, the boy's voice lost again all touch of
+mock gravity.  His listeners, sitting there in the June sunshine,
+looking out across the old green, flecked with the waving tree shadows,
+and bright with the buttercups nodding here and there, seemed to see
+those men and boys drilling there in the far-off summer twilights; to
+hear the sharp words of command; the sound of fife and drum.  And the
+familiar names mentioned more than once, well-known village names,
+names belonging to their own families in some instances, served to
+deepen the impression.
+
+"Why," Edna Ray said slowly, "they're like the things one learns at
+school; somehow, they make one realize that there truly was a
+Revolutionary War.  Wherever did you pick up such a lot of town
+history, Tom?"
+
+"That's telling," Tom answered.
+
+Back up the broad, main street they went, past the pleasant village
+houses, with their bright, well-kept dooryards, under the
+wide-spreading trees beneath which so many generations of young folks
+had come and gone; past the square, white parsonage, with its setting
+of green lawn; past the old stone church, and on out into the by-roads
+of the village, catching now and then a glimpse of the great lake
+beyond; and now and then, down some lane, a bit of the street they had
+left.  They saw it all with eyes that for once had lost the
+indifference of long familiarity, and were swift to catch instead its
+quiet, restful beauty, helped in this, perhaps, by Shirley's very real
+admiration.
+
+The ride ended at Dr. Brice's gate, and here Tom dropped his mantle of
+authority, handing all further responsibility as to the entertainment
+of the party over to his sister.
+
+Hilary was carried off to rest until supper time, and the rest
+scattered about the garden, a veritable rose garden on that June
+afternoon, roses being Dr. Brice's pet hobby.
+
+"It must be lovely to _live_ in the country," Shirley said, dropping
+down on the grass before the doctor's favorite _La France_, and laying
+her face against the soft, pink petals of a half-blown bud.
+
+Edna eyed her curiously.  She had rather resented the admittance of
+this city girl into their set.  Shirley's skirt and blouse were of
+white linen, there was a knot of red under the broad sailor collar, she
+was hatless and the dark hair,--never kept too closely within
+bounds--was tossed and blown; there was certainly nothing especially
+cityfied in either appearance or manner.
+
+"That's the way I feel about the city," Edna said slowly, "it must be
+lovely to live _there_."
+
+Shirley laughed.  "It is.  I reckon just being alive anywhere such days
+as these ought to content one.  You haven't been over to the manor
+lately, have you?  I mean since we came there.  We're really getting
+the garden to look like a garden.  Reclaiming the wilderness, father
+calls it.  You'll come over now, won't you--the club, I mean?"
+
+"Why, of course," Edna answered, she thought she would like to go.  "I
+suppose you've been over to the forts?"
+
+"Lots of times--father's ever so interested in them, and it's just a
+pleasant row across, after supper."
+
+"I have fasted too long, I must eat again," Tom remarked, coming across
+the lawn.  "Miss Dayre, may I have the honor?"
+
+"Are you conductor, or merely club president now?" Shirley asked.
+
+"Oh, I've dropped into private life again.  There comes Hilary--doesn't
+look much like an invalid, does she?"
+
+"But she didn't look very well the first time I saw her," Shirley
+answered.
+
+The long supper table was laid under the apple trees at the foot of the
+garden, which in itself served to turn the occasion into a festive
+affair.
+
+"You've given us a bully send-off, Mr. President," Bob declared.  "It's
+going to be sort of hard for the rest of us to keep up with you."
+
+"By the way," Tom said, "Dr. Brice--some of you may have heard of
+him--would like to become an honorary member of this club.  Any
+contrary votes?"
+
+"What's an honorary member?" Patience asked.  Patience had been
+remarkably good that afternoon--so good that Pauline began to feel
+worried, dreading the reaction.
+
+"One who has all the fun and none of the work," Tracy explained, a
+merry twinkle in his brown eyes.
+
+Patience considered the matter.  "I shouldn't mind the work; but mother
+won't let me join regularly--mother takes notions now and then--but,
+please mayn't I be an honorary member?"
+
+"Onery, you mean, young lady!" Tracy corrected.
+
+Patience flashed a pair of scornful eyes at him.  "Father says punning
+is the very lowest form of--"
+
+"Never mind, Patience," Pauline said, "we haven't answered Tom yet.  I
+vote we extend our thanks to the doctor for being willing to join."
+
+"He isn't a bit more willing than I am," Patience observed.  There was
+a general laugh among the real members, then Tom said, "If a Shaw votes
+for a Brice, I don't very well see how a Brice can refuse to vote for a
+Shaw."
+
+"The motion is carried," Bob seconded him.
+
+"Subject to mother's consent," Pauline added, a quite unnecessary bit
+of elder sisterly interference, Patience thought.
+
+"And now, even if it is telling on yourself, suppose you own up, old
+man?"  Jack Ward turned to Tom.  "You see we don't in the least credit
+you with having produced all that village history from your own stores
+of knowledge."
+
+"I never said you need to," Tom answered, "even the idea was not
+altogether original with me."
+
+Patience suddenly leaned forward, her face all alight with interest.
+"I love my love with an A," she said slowly, "because he's an--author."
+
+Tom whistled.  "Well, of all the uncanny young ones!"
+
+"It's very simple," Patience said loftily.
+
+"So it is, Imp," Tracy exclaimed; "I love him with an A, because he's
+an--A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N!"
+
+"I took him to the sign of The Apple Tree," Bell took up the thread.
+
+"And fed him (mentally) on subjects--antedeluvian, or almost so,"
+Hilary added.
+
+"What _are_ you talking about?" Edna asked impatiently.
+
+"Mr. Allen," Pauline told her.
+
+"I saw him and Tom walking down the back lane the other night,"
+Patience explained.  Patience felt that she had won her right to belong
+to the club now--they'd see she wasn't just a silly little girl.
+"Father says he--I don't mean Tom--"
+
+"We didn't suppose you did," Tracy laughed.
+
+"Knows more history than any other man in the state; especially, the
+history of the state."
+
+"Mr. Allen!" Shirley exclaimed.  "T. C. Allen!  Why, father and I read
+one of his books just the other week.  It's mighty interesting.  Does
+he live in Winton?"
+
+"He surely does," Bob grinned, "and every little while he comes up to
+school and puts us through our paces.  It's his boast that he was born,
+bred and educated right in Vermont.  He isn't a bad old buck--if he
+wouldn't pester a fellow with too many questions."
+
+"He lives out beyond us," Hilary told Shirley.  "There's a great apple
+tree right in front of the gate.  He has an old house-keeper to look
+after him.  I wish you could see his books--he's literally surrounded
+with them."
+
+"Not storybooks," Patience added.  "He says, they're books full of
+stories, if one's a mind to look for them."
+
+"Please," Edna protested, "let's change the subject.  Are we to have
+badges, or not?"
+
+"Pins," Bell suggested.
+
+"Pins would have to be made to order," Pauline objected, "and would be
+more or less expensive."
+
+"And it's an unwritten by-law of this club, that we shall go to no
+unnecessary expense," Tom insisted.
+
+"But--" Bell began.
+
+"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Tom broke in, "but Uncle Jerry
+didn't charge for the stage--he said he was only too glad to have the
+poor thing used--'twas a dull life for her, shut up in the
+carriage-house year in and year out."
+
+"The Folly isn't a she," Patience protested.
+
+"Folly generally is feminine," Tracy said, "and so--"
+
+"And he let us have the horses, too--for our initial outing," Tom went
+on.  "Said the stage wouldn't be of much use without them."
+
+"Three cheers for Uncle Jerry!" Bob Dixon cried.  "Let's make him an
+honorary member."
+
+"But the badges," Edna said.  "I never saw such people for going off at
+tangents."
+
+"Ribbon would be pretty," Shirley suggested, "with the name of the club
+in gilt letters.  I can letter pretty well."
+
+Her suggestion was received with general acclamation, and after much
+discussion, as to color, dark blue was decided on.
+
+"Blue goes rather well with red," Tom said, "and as two of our members
+have red hair," his glance went from Patience to Pauline.
+
+"I move we adjourn, the president's getting personal," Pauline pushed
+back her chair.
+
+"Who's turn is it to be next?" Jack asked.
+
+They drew lots with blades of grass; it fell to Hilary.  "I warn you,"
+she said, "that I can't come up to Tom."
+
+Then the first meeting of the new club broke up, the members going
+their various ways.  Shirley went as far as the parsonage, where she
+was to wait for her father.
+
+"I've had a beautiful time," she said warmly.  "And I've thought what
+to do when my turn comes.  Only, I think you'll have to let father in
+as an honorary, I'll need him to help me out."
+
+"We'll be only too glad," Pauline said heartily.  "This club's growing
+fast, isn't it?  Have you decided, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary shook her head, "N-not exactly; I've sort of an idea."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HILARY'S TURN
+
+Pauline and Hilary were up in their own room, the "new room," as it had
+come to be called, deep in the discussion of certain samples that had
+come in that morning's mail.
+
+Uncle Paul's second check was due before long now, and then there were
+to be new summer dresses, or rather the goods for them, one apiece all
+around.
+
+"Because, of course," Pauline said, turning the pretty scraps over,
+"Mother Shaw's got to have one, too.  We'll have to get it--on the
+side--or she'll declare she doesn't need it, and she does."
+
+"Just the goods won't come to so very much," Hilary said.
+
+"No, indeed, and mother and I can make them."
+
+"We certainly got a lot out of that other check, or rather, you and
+mother did," Hilary went on.  "And it isn't all gone?"
+
+"Pretty nearly, except the little we decided to lay by each month.  But
+we did stretch it out in a good many directions.  I don't suppose any
+of the other twenty-fives will seem quite so big."
+
+"But there won't be such big things to get with them," Hilary said,
+"except these muslins."
+
+"It's unspeakably delightful to have money for the little unnecessary
+things, isn't it?" Pauline rejoiced.
+
+That first check had really gone a long ways.  After buying the matting
+and paper, there had been quite a fair sum left; enough to pay for two
+magazine subscriptions, one a review that Mr. Shaw had long wanted to
+take, another, one of the best of the current monthlies; and to lay in
+quite a store of new ribbons and pretty turnovers, and several yards of
+silkaline to make cushion covers for the side porch, for Pauline,
+taking hint from Hilary's out-door parlor at the farm, had been quick
+to make the most of their own deep, vine-shaded side porch at the
+parsonage.
+
+The front piazza belonged in a measure to the general public, there
+were too many people coming and going to make it private enough for a
+family gathering place.  But the side porch was different, broad and
+square, only two or three steps from the ground; it was their favorite
+gathering place all through the long, hot summers.
+
+With a strip of carpet for the floor, a small table resurrected from
+the garret, a bench and three wicker rockers, freshly painted green,
+and Hilary's hammock, rich in pillows, Pauline felt that their porch
+was one to be proud of.  To Patience had been entrusted the care of
+keeping the old blue and white Canton bowl filled with fresh flowers,
+and there were generally books and papers on the table.  And they might
+have done it all before, Pauline thought now, if they had stopped to
+think.
+
+"Have you decided?" Hilary asked her, glancing at the sober face bent
+over the samples.
+
+"I believe I'd forgotten all about them; I think I'll choose this--"
+Pauline held up a sample of blue and white striped dimity.
+
+"That _is_ pretty."
+
+"You can have it, if you like."
+
+"Oh, no, I'll have the pink."
+
+"And the lavender dot, for Mother Shaw?"
+
+"Yes," Hilary agreed.
+
+"Patience had better have straight white, it'll be in the wash so
+often."
+
+"Why not let her choose for herself, Paul?" Hilary suggested.
+
+"Hilary!  Oh, Hilary Shaw!" Patience called excitedly, at that moment
+from downstairs.
+
+"Up here!" Hilary called back, and Patience came hurrying up, stumbling
+more than once in her eagerness.  The next moment, she pushed wide the
+door of the "new room."  "See what's come!  It's addressed to you,
+Hilary--it came by express--Jed brought it up from the depot!"  Jed was
+the village expressman.
+
+She deposited her burden on the table beside Hilary.  It was a
+good-sized, square box, and with all that delightful air of mystery
+about it that such packages usually have.
+
+"What do you suppose it is, Paul?" Hilary cried.  "Why, I've never had
+anything come unexpectedly, like this, before."
+
+"A whole lot of things are happening to us that never've happened
+before," Patience said.  "See, it's from Uncle Paul!" she pointed to
+the address at the upper left-hand corner of the package.  "Oh, Hilary,
+let me open it, please, I'll go get the tack hammer."
+
+"Tell mother to come," Hilary said.
+
+"Maybe it's books, Paul!" she added, as Patience scampered off.
+
+Pauline lifted the box.  "It doesn't seem quite heavy enough for books."
+
+"But what else could it be?"
+
+Pauline laughed.  "It isn't another Bedelia, at all events.  It could
+be almost anything.  Hilary, I believe Uncle Paul is really glad I
+wrote to him."
+
+"Well, I'm not exactly sorry," Hilary declared.
+
+"Mother can't come yet," Patience explained, reappearing.  "She says
+not to wait.  It's that tiresome Mrs. Dane; she just seems to know when
+we don't want her, and then to come--only, I suppose if she waited 'til
+we did want to see her, she'd never get here."
+
+"Mother didn't say that.  Impatience, and you'd better not let her hear
+you saying it," Pauline warned.
+
+But Patience was busy with the tack hammer.  "You can take the inside
+covers off," she said to Hilary.
+
+"Thanks, awfully," Hilary murmured.
+
+"It'll be my turn next, won't it?" Patience dropped the tack hammer,
+and wrenched off the cover of the box--"Go ahead, Hilary!  Oh, how slow
+you are!"
+
+For Hilary was going about her share of the unpacking in the most
+leisurely way.  "I want to guess first," she said.  "Such a lot of
+wrappings!  It must be something breakable."
+
+"A picture, maybe," Pauline suggested.  Patience dropped cross-legged
+on the floor.  "Then I don't think Uncle Paul's such a very sensible
+sort of person," she said.
+
+"No, not pictures!"  Hilary lifted something from within the box, "but
+something to get pictures with.  See, Paul!"
+
+"A camera!  Oh, Hilary!"
+
+"And not a little tiny one."  Patience leaned over to examine the box.
+"It's a three and a quarter by four and a quarter.  We can have fun
+now, can't we?"  Patience believed firmly in the cooperative principle.
+
+"Tom'll show you how to use it," Pauline said.  "He fixed up a dark
+room last fall, you know, for himself."
+
+"And here are all the doings."  Patience came to investigate the
+further contents of the express package.  "Films and those funny little
+pans for developing in, and all."
+
+Inside the camera was a message to the effect that Mr. Shaw hoped his
+niece would be pleased with his present and that it would add to the
+summer's pleasures,
+
+"He's getting real uncley, isn't he?" Patience observed.  Then she
+caught sight of the samples Pauline had let fall.  "Oh, how pretty!
+Are they for dresses for us?"
+
+"They'd make pretty scant ones, I'd say," Pauline, answered.
+
+"Silly!"  Patience spread the bright scraps out on her blue checked
+gingham apron.  "I just bet you've been choosing!  Why didn't you call
+me?"
+
+"To help us choose?" Pauline asked, with a laugh.
+
+But at the present moment, her small sister was quite impervious to
+sarcasm.  "I think I'll have this," she pointed to a white ground,
+closely sprinkled with vivid green dots.
+
+"Carrots and greens!" Pauline declared, glancing at her sister's red
+curls.  "You'd look like an animated boiled dinner!  If you please, who
+said anything about your choosing?"
+
+"You look ever so nice in all white, Patty," Hilary said hastily.
+
+"Have you and Paul chosen all white?"
+
+"N-no."
+
+"Then I shan't!"  She looked up quickly, her blue eyes very persuasive.
+"I don't very often have a brand new, just-out-of-the-store dress, do
+I?"
+
+Pauline laughed.  "Only don't let it be the green then.  Good, here's
+mother, at last!"
+
+"Mummy, is blue or green better?" Patience demanded.
+
+Mrs. Shaw examined and duly admired the camera, and decided in favor of
+a blue dot; then she said, "Mrs. Boyd is down-stairs, Hilary."
+
+"How nice!" Hilary jumped up.  "I want to see her most particularly."
+
+"Bless me, child!" Mrs. Boyd exclaimed, as Hilary came into the
+sitting-room, "how you are getting on!  Why, you don't look like the
+same girl of three weeks back."
+
+Hilary sat down beside her on the sofa.  "I've got a most tremendous
+favor to ask, Mrs. Boyd."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that!  I hear you young folks are having fine times
+lately.  Shirley was telling me about the club the other night."
+
+"It's about the club--and it's in two parts; first, won't you and Mr.
+Boyd be honorary members?--That means you can come to the good times if
+you like, you know.--And the other is--you see, it's my turn next--"
+And when Pauline came down, she found the two deep in consultation.
+
+The next afternoon, Patience carried out her long-intended plan of
+calling at the manor.  Mrs. Shaw was from home for the day, Pauline and
+Hilary were out in the trap with Tom and Josie and the camera.  "So
+there's really no one to ask permission of, Towser," Patience
+explained, as they started off down the back lane.  "Father's got the
+study door closed, of course that means he mustn't be disturbed for
+anything unless it's absolutely necessary."
+
+Towser wagged comprehendingly.  He was quite ready for a ramble this
+bright afternoon, especially a ramble 'cross lots.
+
+Shirley and her father were not at home, neither--which was even more
+disappointing--were any of the dogs; so, after a short chat with Betsy
+Todd, considerably curtailed by that body's too frankly expressed
+wonder that Patience should've been allowed to come unattended by any
+of her elders, she and Towser wandered home again.
+
+In the lane, they met Sextoness Jane, sitting on the roadside, under a
+shady tree.  She and Patience exchanged views on parish matters,
+discussed the new club, and had an all-round good gossip.
+
+"My sakes!" Jane said, her faded eyes bright with interest, "it must
+seem like Christmas all the time up to your house."  She looked past
+Patience to the old church beyond, around which her life had centered
+itself for so many years.  "There weren't ever such doings at the
+parsonage--nor anywhere else, what I knowed of--when I was a girl.
+Why, that Bedelia horse!  Seems like she give an air to the whole
+place--so pretty and high-stepping--it's most's good's a circus--not
+that I've ever been to a circus, but I've hear tell on them--just to
+see her go prancing by."
+
+"I think," Patience said that evening, as they were all sitting on the
+porch in the twilight, "I think that Jane would like awfully to belong
+to our club."
+
+"Have you started a club, too?" Pauline teased.
+
+Patience tossed her red head.  "'The S. W. F. Club,' I mean; and you
+know it, Paul Shaw.  When I get to be fifteen, I shan't act half so
+silly as some folks."
+
+"What ever put that idea in your head?" Hilary asked.  It was one of
+Hilary's chief missions in life to act as intermediary between her
+younger and older sister.
+
+"Oh, I just gathered it, from what she said.  Towser and I met her this
+afternoon, on our way home from the manor."
+
+"From where, Patience?" her mother asked quickly, with that faculty for
+taking hold of the wrong end of a remark, that Patience had had
+occasion to deplore more than once.
+
+And in the diversion this caused, Sextoness Jane was forgotten.
+
+
+"Here comes Mr. Boyd, Hilary!" Pauline called from the foot of the
+stairs.
+
+Hilary finished tying the knot of cherry ribbon at her throat, then
+snatching up her big sun-hat from the bed, she ran down-stairs.
+
+Before the side door, stood the big wagon, in which Mr. Boyd had driven
+over from the farm, its bottom well filled with fresh straw.  For
+Hilary's outing was to be a cherry picnic at The Maples, with supper
+under the trees, and a drive home later by moonlight.
+
+Shirley had brought over the badges a day or two before; the blue
+ribbon, with its gilt lettering, gave an added touch to the girls'
+white dresses and cherry ribbons.
+
+Mr. Dayre had been duly made an honorary member.  He and Shirley were
+to meet the rest of the party at the farm.  As for Patience H. M., as
+Tom called her, she had been walking very softly the past few days.
+There had been no long rambles without permission, no making calls on
+her own account.  There _had_ been a private interview between herself
+and Mr. Boyd, whom she had met, not altogether by chance, down street
+the day before.
+
+The result was that, at the present moment, Patience--white-frocked,
+blue-badged, cherry-ribboned--was sitting demurely in one corner of the
+big wagon.
+
+Mr. Boyd chuckled as he glanced down at her; a body'd have to get up
+pretty early in the morning to get ahead of that youngster.  Though not
+in white, nor wearing cherry ribbons, Mr. Boyd sported his badge with
+much complacency.  Winton was looking up, decidedly.  'Twasn't such a
+slow old place, after all.
+
+"All ready?" he asked, as Pauline slipped a couple of big pasteboard
+boxes under the wagon seat, and threw in some shawls for the coming
+home.
+
+"All ready.  Good-by, Mother Shaw.  Remember, you and father have got
+to come with us one of these days.  I guess if Mr. Boyd can take a
+holiday you can."
+
+"Good-by," Hilary called, and Patience waved joyously.  "This'll make
+two times," she comforted herself, "and two times ought to be enough to
+establish what father calls 'a precedent.'"
+
+They stopped at the four other houses in turn; then Mr. Boyd touched
+his horses up lightly, rattling them along at a good rate out on to the
+road leading to the lake and so to The Maples.
+
+There was plenty of fun and laughter by the way.  They had gone
+picnicking together so many summers, this same crowd, had had so many
+good times together.  "And yet it seems different, this year, doesn't
+it?" Bell said.  "We really aren't doing new things--exactly, still
+they seem so."
+
+Tracy touched his badge.  "These are the 'Blue Ribbon Brand,' best
+goods in the market."
+
+"Come to think of it, there aren't so very many new things one can do,"
+Tom remarked.
+
+"Not in Winton, at any rate," Bob added.
+
+"If anyone dares say anything derogatory to Winton, on this, or any
+other, outing of the 'S. W. F. Club,' he, or she, will get into
+trouble," Josie said sternly.
+
+Mrs. Boyd was waiting for them on the steps, Shirley close by, while a
+glimpse of a white umbrella seen through the trees told that Mr. Dayre
+was not far off.
+
+"It's the best cherry season in years," Mrs. Boyd declared, as the
+young folks came laughing and crowding about her.  She was a prime
+favorite with them all.  "My, how nice you look!  Those badges are
+mighty pretty."
+
+"Where's yours?" Pauline demanded.
+
+"It's in my top drawer, dear.  Looks like I'm too old to go wearing
+such things, though 'twas ever so good in you to send me one."
+
+"Hilary," Pauline turned to her sister, "I'm sure Mrs. Boyd'll let you
+go to her top drawer.  Not a stroke of business does this club do,
+until this particular member has her badge on."
+
+"Now," Tom asked, when that little matter had been attended to, "what's
+the order of the day?"
+
+"I hope you've worn old dresses?" Mrs. Boyd said.
+
+"I haven't, ma'am," Tracy announced.
+
+"Order!" Bob called.
+
+"Eat all you like--so long's you don't get sick--and each pick a nice
+basket to take home," Mrs. Boyd explained.  There were no cherries
+anywhere else quite so big and fine, as those at The Maples.
+
+"You to command, we to obey!" Tracy declared.
+
+"Boys to pick, girls to pick up," Tom ordered, as they scattered about
+among the big, bountifully laden trees.
+
+  "For cherry time,
+  Is merry time,"
+
+Shirley improvised, catching the cluster of great red and white
+cherries Jack tossed down to her.
+
+Even more than the rest of the young folks, Shirley was getting the
+good of this happy, out-door summer, with its quiet pleasures and
+restful sense of home life.  She had never known anything before like
+it.  It was very different, certainly, from the studio life in New
+York, different from the sketching rambles she had taken other summers
+with her father.  They were delightful, too, and it was pleasant to
+think of going back to them again--some day; but just at present, it
+was good to be a girl among other girls, interested in all the simple,
+homely things each day brought up.
+
+And her father was content, too, else how could she have been so?  It
+was doing him no end of good.  Painting a little, sketching a little,
+reading and idling a good deal, and through it all, immensely amused at
+the enthusiasm with which his daughter threw herself into the village
+life.  "I shall begin to think soon, that you were born and raised in
+Winton," he had said to her that very morning, as she came in fresh
+from a conference with Betsy Todd.  Betsy might be spending her summer
+in a rather out-of-the-way spot, and her rheumatism might prevent her
+from getting into town--as she expressed it--but very little went on
+that Betsy did not hear of, and she was not one to keep her news to
+herself.
+
+"So shall I," Shirley had laughed back.  She wondered now, if Pauline
+or Hilary would enjoy a studio winter, as much as she was reveling in
+her Winton summer?  She decided that probably they would.
+
+Cherry time _was_ merry time that afternoon.  Of course.  Bob fell out
+of one of the trees, but Bob was so used to tumbling, and the others
+were so used to having him tumble, that no one paid much attention to
+it; and equally, of course, Patience tore her dress and had to be taken
+in hand by Mrs. Boyd.
+
+"Every rose must have its thorns, you know, kid," Tracy told her, as
+she was borne away for this enforced retirement.  "We'll leave a few
+cherries, 'gainst you get back."
+
+Patience elevated her small freckled nose, she was an adept at it.  "I
+reckon they will be mighty few--if you have anything to do with it."
+
+"You're having a fine time, aren't you, Senior?" Shirley asked, as Mr.
+Dayre came scrambling down from his tree; he had been routed from his
+sketching and pressed into service by his indefatigable daughter.
+
+"Scrumptious!  Shirley, you've got a fine color--only it's laid on in
+spots."
+
+"You're spattery, too," she retorted.  "I must go help lay out the
+supper now."
+
+"Will anyone want supper, after so many cherries?" Mr. Dayre asked.
+
+"Will they?" Pauline laughed.  "Well, you just wait and see."
+
+Some of the boys brought the table from the house, stretching it out to
+its uttermost length.  The girls laid the cloth, Mrs. Boyd provided,
+and unpacked the boxes stacked on the porch.  From the kitchen came an
+appetizing odor of hot coffee.  Hilary and Bell went off after flowers
+for the center of the table.
+
+"We'll put one at each place, suggestive of the person--like a place
+card," Hilary proposed.
+
+"Here's a daisy for Mrs. Boyd," Bell laughed.
+
+"Let's give that to Mr. Boyd and cut her one of these old-fashioned
+spice pinks," Hilary said.
+
+"Better put a bit of pepper-grass for the Imp," Tracy suggested, as the
+girls went from place to place up and down the long table.
+
+"Paul's to have a pansy," Hilary insisted.  She remembered how, if it
+hadn't been for Pauline's "thought" that wet May afternoon, everything
+would still be as dull and dreary as it was then.
+
+At her own place she found a spray of belated wild roses, Tom had laid
+there, the pink of their petals not more delicate than the soft color
+coming and going in the girl's face.
+
+"We've brought for-get-me-not for you, Shirley," Bell said, "so that
+you won't forget us when you get back to the city."
+
+"As if I were likely to!" Shirley exclaimed.
+
+"Sound the call to supper, sonny!" Tom told Bob, and Bob, raising the
+farm dinner-horn, sounded it with a will, making the girls cover their
+ears with their hands and bringing the boys up with a rush.
+
+"It's a beautiful picnic, isn't it?" Patience said, reappearing in time
+to slip into place with the rest.
+
+"And after supper, I will read you the club song," Tracy announced.
+
+"Are we to have a club song?" Edna asked.
+
+"We are."
+
+"Read it now, son--while we eat," Tom suggested.
+
+Tracy rose promptly--"Mind you save me a few scraps then.  First, it
+isn't original--"
+
+"All the better," Jack commented.
+
+"Hush up, and listen--
+
+  "'A cheerful world?--It surely is.
+    And if you understand your biz
+    You'll taboo the worry worm,
+    And cultivate the happy germ.
+
+  "'It's a habit to be happy,
+    Just as much as to be scrappy.
+    So put the frown away awhile,
+    And try a little sunny smile.'"
+
+There was a generous round of applause.  Tracy tossed the scrap of
+paper across the table to Bell.  "Put it to music, before the next
+round-up, if you please."
+
+Bell nodded.  "I'll do my best."
+
+"We've got a club song and a club badge, and we ought to have a club
+motto," Josie said.
+
+"It's right to your hand, in your song," her brother answered.  "'It's
+a habit to be happy.'"
+
+"Good!" Pauline seconded him, and the motto was at once adopted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SNAP-SHOTS
+
+Bell Ward set the new song to music, a light, catchy tune, easy to pick
+up.  It took immediately, the boys whistled it, as they came and went,
+and the girls hummed it.  Patience, with cheerful impartiality, did
+both, in season and out of season.
+
+It certainly looked as though it were getting to be a habit to be happy
+among a good many persons in Winton that summer.  The spirit of the new
+club seemed in the very atmosphere.
+
+A rivalry, keen but generous, sprang up between the club members in the
+matter of discovering new ways of "Seeing Winton," or, failing that, of
+giving a new touch to the old familiar ones.
+
+There were many informal and unexpected outings, besides the club's
+regular ones, sometimes amongst all the members, often among two or
+three of them.
+
+Frequently, Shirley drove over in the surrey, and she and Pauline and
+Hilary, with sometimes one of the other girls, would go for long
+rambling drives along the quiet country roads, or out beside the lake.
+Shirley generally brought her sketch-book and there were pleasant
+stoppings here and there.
+
+And there were few days on which Bedelia and the trap were not out,
+Bedelia enjoying the brisk trots about the country quite as much as her
+companions.
+
+Hilary soon earned the title of "the kodak fiend," Josie declaring she
+took pictures in her sleep, and that "Have me; have my camera," was
+Hilary's present motto.  Certainly, the camera was in evidence at all
+the outings, and so far, Hilary had fewer failures to her account than
+most beginners.  Her "picture diary" she called the big scrap-book in
+which was mounted her record of the summer's doings.
+
+Those doings were proving both numerous and delightful.  Mr. Shaw, as
+an honorary member, had invited the club to a fishing party, which had
+been an immense success.  The doctor had followed it by a moonlight
+drive along the lake and across on the old sail ferry to the New York
+side, keeping strictly within that ten-mile-from-home limit, though
+covering considerably more than ten miles in the coming and going.
+
+There had been picnics of every description, to all the points of
+interest and charm in and about the village; an old-time supper at the
+Wards', at which the club members had appeared in old-fashioned
+costumes; a strawberry supper on the church lawn, to which all the
+church were invited, and which went off rather better than some of the
+sociables had in times past.
+
+As the Winton _Weekly News_ declared proudly, it was the gayest summer
+the village had known in years.  Mr. Paul Shaw's theory about
+developing home resources was proving a sound one in this instance at
+least.
+
+Hilary had long since forgotten that she had ever been an invalid, had
+indeed, sometimes, to be reminded of that fact.  She had quite
+discarded the little "company" fiction, except now and then, by way of
+a joke.  "Who'd want to be company?" she protested.  "I'd rather be one
+of the family these days."
+
+"That's all very well," Patience retorted, "when you're getting all the
+good of being both.  You've got the company room."  Patience had not
+found her summer quite as cloudless as some of her elders; being an
+honorary member had not meant _all_ of the fun in her case.  She wished
+very much that it were possible to grow up in a single night, thus
+wiping out forever that drawback of being "a little girl."
+
+Still, on the whole, she managed to get a fair share of the fun going
+on and quite agreed with the editor of the _Weekly News_, going so far
+as to tell him so when she met him down street.  She had a very kindly
+feeling in her heart for the pleasant spoken little editor; had he not
+given her her full honors every time she had had the joy of being
+"among those present"?
+
+There had been three of those checks from Uncle Paul; it was wonderful
+how far each had been made to go.  It was possible nowadays to send for
+a new book, when the reviews were more than especially tempting.  There
+had also been a tea-table added to the other attractions of the side
+porch, not an expensive affair, but the little Japanese cups and
+saucers were both pretty and delicate, as was the rest of the service;
+while Miranda's cream cookies and sponge cakes were, as Shirley
+declared, good enough to be framed.  Even the minister appeared now and
+then of an afternoon, during tea hour, and the young people, gathered
+on the porch, began to find him a very pleasant addition to their
+little company, he and they getting acquainted, as they had never
+gotten acquainted before.
+
+Sextoness Jane came every week now to help with the ironing, which
+meant greater freedom in the matter of wash dresses; and also, to
+Sextoness Jane herself, the certainty of a day's outing every week.  To
+Sextoness Jane, those Tuesdays at the parsonage were little short of a
+dissipation.  Miranda, unbending in the face of such sincere and humble
+admiration, was truly gracious.  The glimpses the little bent, old
+sextoness got of the young folks, the sense of life going on about her,
+were as good as a play, to quote her own simile, confided of an evening
+to Tobias, her great black cat, the only other inmate of the old
+cottage.
+
+"I reckon Uncle Paul would be rather surprised," Pauline said one
+evening, "if he could know all the queer sorts of ways in which we use
+his money.  But the little easings-up do count for so much."
+
+"Indeed they do," Hilary agreed warmly, "though it hasn't all gone for
+easings-ups, as you call them, either."  She had sat down right in the
+middle of getting ready for bed, to revel in her ribbon box; she so
+loved pretty ribbons!
+
+The committee on finances, as Pauline called her mother, Hilary, and
+herself, held frequent meetings.  "And there's always one thing," the
+girl would declare proudly, "the treasury is never entirely empty."
+
+She kept faithful account of all money received and spent; each month a
+certain amount was laid away for the "rainy day"--which meant, really,
+the time when the checks should cease to come---"for, you know, Uncle
+Paul only promised them for the _summer_," Pauline reminded the others,
+and herself, rather frequently.  Nor was all of the remainder ever
+quite used up before the coming of the next check.
+
+"You're quite a business woman, my dear," Mr. Shaw said once, smiling
+over the carefully recorded entries in the little account-book she
+showed him.  "We must have named you rightly."
+
+She wrote regularly to her uncle; her letters unconsciously growing
+more friendly and informal from week to week.  They were bright, vivid
+letters, more so than Pauline had any idea of.  Through them, Mr. Paul
+Shaw felt himself becoming very well acquainted with these young
+relatives whom he had never seen, and in whom, as the weeks went by, he
+felt himself growing more and more interested.
+
+Without realizing it, he got into the habit of looking forward to that
+weekly letter; the girl wrote a nice clear hand, there didn't seem to
+be any nonsense about her, and she had a way of going right to her
+point that was most satisfactory.  It seemed sometimes as if he could
+see the old white parsonage and ivy-covered church; the broad
+tree-shaded lawns; the outdoor parlor, with the young people gathered
+about the tea-table; Bedelia, picking her way along the quiet country
+roads; the great lake in all its moods; the manor house.
+
+Sometimes Pauline would enclose one or two of Hilary's snap-shots of
+places, or persons.  At one of these, taken the day of the fishing
+picnic, and under which Hilary had written "The best catch of the
+season," Mr. Paul Shaw looked long and intently.  Somehow he had never
+pictured Phil to himself as middle-aged.  If anyone had told him, when
+the lad was a boy, that the time would come when they would be like
+strangers to each other--Mr. Paul Shaw slipped the snap-shot and letter
+back into their envelope.
+
+It was that afternoon that he spent considerable time over a catalogue
+devoted entirely to sporting goods; and it was a fortnight later that
+Patience came flying down the garden path to where Pauline and Hilary
+were leaning over the fence, paying a morning call to Bedelia, sunning
+herself in the back pasture.
+
+"You'll never guess what's come _this_ time!  And Jed says he reckons
+he can haul it out this afternoon if you're set on it!  And it's
+addressed to the 'Misses Shaw,' so that means it's _mine, too_!"
+Patience dropped on the grass, quite out of breath.
+
+The "it" proved to be a row-boat with a double set of oar-locks, a
+perfect boat for the lake, strong and safe, but trig and neat of
+outline.
+
+Hilary named it the "Surprise" at first sight, and Tom was sent for at
+once to paint the name in red letters to look well against the white
+background and to match the boat's red trimmings.
+
+Its launching was an event.  Some of the young people had boats over at
+the lake, rather weather-beaten, tubby affairs, Bell declared them,
+after the coming of the "Surprise."  A general overhauling took place
+immediately, the girls adopted simple boating dresses--red and white,
+which were their boating colors.  A new zest was given to the water
+picnics, Bedelia learning to know the lake road very well.
+
+August had come before they fairly realized that their summer was more
+than well under way.  In little more than a month the long vacation
+would be over.  Tom and Josie were to go to Boston to school; Bell to
+Vergennes.
+
+"There'll never be another summer quite like it!" Hilary said one
+morning.  "I can't bear to think of its being over."
+
+"It isn't--yet," Pauline answered.
+
+"Tom's coming," Patience heralded from the gate, and Hilary ran indoors
+for hat and camera.
+
+"Where are you off to this morning?" Pauline asked, as her sister came
+out again.
+
+"Out by the Cross-roads' Meeting-House," Tom answered.  "Hilary has
+designs on it, I believe."
+
+"You'd better come, too, Paul," Hilary urged.  "It's a glorious morning
+for a walk."
+
+"I'm going to help mother cut out; perhaps I'll come to meet you with
+Bedelia 'long towards noon.  You wait at Meeting-House Hill."
+
+"_I'm_ not going to be busy this morning," Patience insinuated.
+
+"Oh, yes you are, young lady," Pauline told her.  "Mother said you were
+to weed the aster bed."
+
+Patience looked longingly after the two starting gayly off down the
+path, their cameras swung over their shoulders, then she looked
+disgustedly at the aster bed.  It was quite the biggest of the smaller
+beds.--She didn't see what people wanted to plant so many asters for;
+she had never cared much for asters, she felt she should care even less
+about them in the future.  Tiresome, stiff affairs!
+
+By the time Tom and Hilary reached the old Cross-Roads' Meeting-House
+that morning, after a long roundabout ramble, Hilary, for one, was
+quite willing to sit down and wait for Pauline and the trap, and eat
+the great, juicy blackberries Tom gathered for her from the bushes
+along the road.
+
+It had rained during the night and the air was crisp and fresh, with a
+hint of the coming fall.  "Summer's surely on the down grade," Tom
+said, throwing himself on the bank beside Hilary.
+
+"So Paul and I were lamenting this morning.  I don't suppose it matters
+as much to you folks who are going off to school."
+
+"Still it means another summer over," Tom said soberly.  He was rather
+sorry that it was so--there could never be another summer quite so
+jolly and carefree.  "And the breaking up of the club, I suppose?"
+
+"I don't see why we need call it a break--just a discontinuance, for a
+time."
+
+"And why that, even?  There'll be a lot of you left, to keep it going."
+
+"Y-yes, but with three, or perhaps more, out, I reckon we'll have to
+postpone the next installment until another summer."
+
+Tom went off then for more berries, and Hilary sat leaning back against
+the trunk of the big tree crowning the top of Meeting-House Hill, her
+eyes rather thoughtful.  From where she sat, she had a full view of
+both roads for some distance and, just beyond, the little hamlet
+scattered about the old meeting-house.
+
+Before the gate of one of the houses stood a familiar gig, and
+presently, as she sat watching, Dr. Brice came down the narrow
+flower-bordered path, followed by a woman.  At the gate both stopped;
+the woman was saying something, her anxious, drawn face seeming out of
+keeping with the cheery freshness of the morning and the flowers
+nodding their bright heads about her.
+
+As the doctor stood listening, his old shabby medicine case in his
+hand, with face bent to the troubled one raised to his, and bearing
+indicating grave sympathy and understanding, Hilary reached for her
+camera.
+
+"Upon my word!  Isn't the poor pater exempt?" Tom laughed, coming back.
+
+"I want it for the book Josie and I are making for you to take away
+with you, 'Winton Snap-shots.'  We'll call it 'The Country Doctor.'"
+
+Tom looked at the gig, moving slowly off down the road now.  He hated
+to say so, but he wished Hilary would not put that particular snap-shot
+in.  He had a foreboding that it was going to make him a bit
+uncomfortable--later--when the time for decision came; though, as for
+that, he had already decided--beyond thought of change.  He wished that
+the pater hadn't set his heart on his coming back here to practice--and
+he wished, too, that Hilary hadn't taken that photo.
+
+"Paul's late," he said presently.
+
+"I'm afraid she isn't coming."
+
+"It's past twelve," Tom glanced at the sun.  "Maybe we'd better walk on
+a bit."
+
+But they had walked a considerable bit, all the way to the parsonage,
+in fact, before they saw anything of Pauline.  There, she met them at
+the gate.  "Have you seen any trace of Patience--and Bedelia?" she
+asked eagerly.
+
+"Patience and Bedelia?" Hilary repeated wonderingly.
+
+"They're both missing, and it's pretty safe guessing they're together."
+
+"But Patience would never dare--"
+
+"Wouldn't she!" Pauline exclaimed.  "Jim brought Bedelia 'round about
+eleven and when I came out a few moments later, she was gone and so was
+Patience.  Jim's out looking for them.  We traced them as far as the
+Lake road."
+
+"I'll go hunt, too," Tom offered.  "Don't you worry, Paul; she'll turn
+up all right--couldn't down the Imp, if you tried."
+
+"But she's never driven Bedelia alone; and Bedelia's not Fanny."
+
+However, half an hour later, Patience drove calmly into the yard,
+Towser on the seat beside her, and if there was something very like
+anxiety in her glance, there was distinct triumph in the way she
+carried her small, bare head.
+
+"We've had a beautiful drive!" she announced, smiling pleasantly from
+her high seat, at the worried, indignant group on the porch.  "I tell
+you, there isn't any need to 'hi-yi' this horse!"
+
+"My sakes!" Miranda declared.  "Did you ever hear the beat of that!"
+
+"Get down, Patience!" Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience climbed obediently
+down.  She bore the prompt banishment to her own room which followed,
+with seeming indifference.  Certainly, it was not unexpected; but when
+Hilary brought her dinner up to her presently, she found her sitting on
+the floor, her head on the bed.  It was only a few days now to
+Shirley's turn and it was going to be such a nice turn.  Patience felt
+that for once Patience Shaw had certainly acted most unwisely.
+
+"Patty, how could you!" Hilary put the tray on the table and sitting
+down on the bed, took the tumbled head on her knee.  "We've been so
+worried!  You see, Bedelia isn't like Fanny!"
+
+"That's why I wanted to get a chance to drive her by myself for once!
+She went beautifully! out on the Lake road I just let her loose!"  For
+the moment, pride in her recent performance routed all contrition from
+Patience's voice--"I tell you, folks I passed just stared!"
+
+"Patience, how--"
+
+"I wasn't scared the least bit; and, of course, Bedelia knew it.  Uncle
+Jerry says they always know when you're scared, and if Mr. Allen is the
+most up in history of any man in Vermont, Uncle Jerry is the most in
+horses."
+
+Hilary felt that the conversation was hardly proceeding upon the lines
+her mother would have approved of, especially under present
+circumstances.  "That has nothing to do with it, you know, Patience,"
+she said, striving to be properly severe.
+
+"I think it has--everything.  I think it's nice not being scared of
+things.  You're sort of timid 'bout things, aren't you, Hilary?"
+
+Hilary made a movement to rise.
+
+"Oh, please," Patience begged.  "It's going to be such a dreadful long
+afternoon--all alone."
+
+"But I can't stay, mother would not want--"
+
+"Just for a minute.  I--I want to tell you something.  I--coming back,
+I met Jane, and I gave her a lift home--and she did love it so--she
+says she's never ridden before behind a horse that really went as if it
+enjoyed it as much as she did.  That was some good out of being bad,
+wasn't it?  And--I told you--ever'n' ever so long ago, that I was
+mighty sure Jane'd just be tickled to death to belong to our club.  I
+think you might ask her--I don't see why she shouldn't like Seeing
+Winton, same's we do--she doesn't ever have fun--and she'll be dead
+pretty soon.  She's getting along, Jane is--it'd make me mad's anything
+to have to die 'fore I'd had any fun to speak of.  Jane's really very
+good company--when you draw her out--she just needs drawing out--Jane
+does.  Seems to me, she remembers every funeral and wedding and
+everything--that's ever taken place in Winton."  Patience stopped,
+sheer out of breath, but there was an oddly serious look on her little
+eager face.
+
+Hilary stroked back the tangled red curls.  "Maybe you're right, Patty;
+maybe we have been selfish with our good times.  I'll have to go now,
+dear.  You--I may tell mother--that you are sorry--truly, Patty?"
+
+Patience nodded.  "But I reckon, it's a good deal on account of
+Shirley's turn," she explained.
+
+Hilary bit her lip.
+
+"You don't suppose you could fix that up with mother?  You're pretty
+good at fixing things up with mother, Hilary."
+
+"Since how long?" Hilary laughed, but when she had closed the door, she
+opened it again to stick her head in.  "I'll try, Patty, at any rate,"
+she promised.
+
+She went down-stairs rather thoughtful.  Mrs. Shaw was busy in the
+study and Pauline had gone out on an errand.  Hilary went up-stairs
+again, going to sit by one of the side windows in the "new room."
+
+Over at the church, Sextoness Jane was making ready for the regular
+weekly prayer meeting; never a service was held in the church that she
+did not set all in order.  Through one of the open windows, Hilary
+caught sight of the bunch of flowers on the reading-desk.  Jane had
+brought them with her from home.  Presently, the old woman herself came
+to the window to shake her dust-cloth, standing there a moment, leaning
+a little out, her eyes turned to the parsonage.  Pauline was coming up
+the path, Shirley and Bell were with her.  They were laughing and
+talking, the bright young voices making a pleasant break in the quiet
+of the garden.  It seemed to Hilary, as if she could catch the wistful
+look in Jane's faded eyes, a look only half consciously so, as if the
+old woman reached out vaguely for something that her own youth had been
+without and that only lately she had come to feel the lack of.
+
+A quick lump came into the girl's throat.  Life had seemed so bright
+and full of untried possibilities only that very morning, up there on
+Meeting-House Hill, with the wind in one's face; and then had come that
+woman, following the doctor down from the path.  Life was surely
+anything but bright for her this crisp August day--and now here was
+Jane.  And presently--at the moment it seemed very near indeed to
+Hilary--she and Paul and all of them would be old and, perhaps,
+unhappy.  And then it would be good to remember--that they had tried to
+share the fun and laughter of this summer of theirs with others.
+
+Hilary thought of the piece of old tapestry hanging on the studio wall
+over at the manor--of the interwoven threads--the dark as necessary to
+the pattern as the bright.  Perhaps they had need of Sextoness Jane, of
+the interweaving of her life into theirs--of the interweaving of all
+the village lives going on about them--quite as much as those more
+sober lives needed the brightening touch of theirs.
+
+"Hilary!  O Hilary!" Pauline called.
+
+"I'm coming," Hilary answered, and went slowly down to where the others
+were waiting on the porch.
+
+"Has anything happened?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I've been having a think--and I've come to the conclusion that we're a
+selfish, self-absorbed set."
+
+"Mother Shaw!" Pauline went to the study window, "please come out here.
+Hilary's calling us names, and that isn't polite."
+
+Mrs. Shaw came.  "I hope not very bad names," she said.
+
+Hilary swung slowly back and forth in the hammock.  "I didn't mean it
+that way--it's only--"  She told what Patience had said about Jane's
+joining the club, and then, rather reluctantly, a little of what she
+had been thinking.
+
+"I think Hilary's right," Shirley declared.  "Let's form a deputation
+and go right over and ask the poor old soul to join here and now."
+
+"I would never've thought of it," Bell said.  "But I don't suppose I've
+ever given Jane a thought, anyway."
+
+"Patty's mighty cute--for all she's such a terror at times," Pauline
+admitted.  "She knows a lot about the people here--and it's just
+because she's interested in them."
+
+"Come on," Shirley said, jumping up.  "We're going to have another
+honorary member."
+
+"I think it would be kind, girls," Mrs. Shaw said gravely.  "Jane will
+feel herself immensely flattered, and I know of no one who upholds the
+honor of Winton more honestly or persistently."
+
+"And please, Mrs. Shaw," Shirley coaxed, "when we come back, mayn't
+Patience Shaw, H. M., come down and have tea with us?"
+
+"I hardly think--"
+
+"Please, Mother Shaw," Hilary broke in; "after all--she started this,
+you know.  That sort of counterbalances the other, doesn't it?"
+
+"Well, we'll see," her mother laughed.
+
+Pauline ran to get one of the extra badges with which Shirley had
+provided her, and then the four girls went across to the church.
+
+Sextoness Jane was just locking the back door--not the least important
+part of the afternoon's duties with her--as they came through the
+opening in the hedge.  "Good afternoon," she said cheerily, "was you
+wanting to go inside?"
+
+"No," Pauline answered, "we came over to invite you to join our club.
+We thought, maybe, you'd like to?"
+
+"My Land!"  Jane stared from one to another of them.  "And wear one of
+them blue-ribbon affairs?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Shirley laughed.  "See, here it is," and she pointed to
+the one in Pauline's hand.
+
+Sextoness Jane came down the steps.  "Me, I ain't never wore a badge!
+Not once in all my life!  Oncet, when I was a little youngster, 'most
+like Patience, teacher, she got up some sort of May doings.  We was all
+to wear white dresses and red, white and blue ribbons--very night
+before, I come down with the mumps.  Looks like I always come down when
+I ought to've stayed up!"
+
+"But you won't come down with anything this time," Pauline pinned the
+blue badge on the waist of Jane's black and white calico.  "Now you're
+an honorary member of 'The S. W. F. Club.'"
+
+Jane passed a hand over it softly.  "My Land!" was all she could say.
+
+She was still stroking it softly as she walked slowly away towards
+home.  My, wouldn't Tobias be interested!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AT THE MANOR
+
+  "'All the names I know from nurse:
+    Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
+    Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
+    And the Lady Hollyhock,'"
+
+Patience chanted, moving slowly about the parsonage garden, hands full
+of flowers, and the big basket, lying on the grass beyond, almost full.
+
+Behind her, now running at full speed, now stopping suddenly, back
+lifted, tail erect, came Lucky, the black kitten from The Maples.
+Lucky had been an inmate of the parsonage for some weeks now and was
+thriving famously in her adopted home.  Towser tolerated her with the
+indifference due such a small, insignificant creature, and she
+alternately bullied and patronized Towser.
+
+"We haven't shepherd's purse, nor lady's smock, that I know of, Lucky,"
+Patience said, glancing back at the kitten, at that moment threatening
+battle at a polite nodding Sweet William, "but you can see for yourself
+that we have hollyhocks, while as for bachelor's buttons!  Just look at
+that big, blue bunch in one corner of the basket."
+
+It was the morning of the day of Shirley's turn and Pauline was
+hurrying to get ready to go over and help decorate the manor.  She was
+singing, too; from the open windows of the "new room" came the words--
+
+  "'A cheerful world?--It surely is
+    And if you understand your biz
+    You'll taboo the worry worm,
+    And cultivate the happy germ.'"
+
+To which piece of good advice, Patience promptly whistled back the gay
+refrain.
+
+On the back porch, Sextoness Jane--called in for an extra half-day--was
+ironing the white dresses to be worn that afternoon.  And presently,
+Patience, her basket quite full and stowed away in the trap waiting
+before the side door, strolled around to interview her.
+
+"I suppose you're going this afternoon?" she asked.
+
+Jane looked up from waxing her iron.  "Well, I was sort of calculating
+on going over for a bit; Miss Shirley having laid particular stress on
+my coming and this being the first reg'lar doings since I joined the
+club.  I told her and Pauline they mustn't look for me to go junketing
+'round with them all the while, seeing I'm in office--so to speak--and
+my time pretty well taken up with my work.  I reckon you're going?"
+
+"I--"  Patience edged nearer the porch.  Behind Jane stood the tall
+clothes-horse, with its burden of freshly ironed white things.  At
+sight of a short, white frock, very crisp and immaculate, the blood
+rushed to the child's face, then as quickly receded.--After all, it
+would have had to be ironed for Sunday and--well, mother certainly had
+been very non-committal the past few days--ever since that escapade
+with Bedelia, in fact--regarding her youngest daughter's hopes and
+fears for this all-important afternoon.  And Patience had been wise
+enough not to press the matter.
+
+"But, oh, I do wonder if Hilary has--"  Patience went back to the side
+porch.  Hilary was there talking to Bedelia.  "You--you have fixed it
+up?" the child inquired anxiously.
+
+Hilary looked gravely unconscious.  "Fixed it up?" she repeated.
+
+"About this afternoon--with mother?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  Mother's going; so is father."
+
+Patience repressed a sudden desire to stamp her foot, and Hilary,
+seeing the real doubt and longing in her face, relented.  "Mother wants
+to see you, Patty.  I rather think there are to be conditions."
+
+Patience darted off.  From the doorway, she looked back--"I just knew
+you wouldn't go back on me, Hilary!  I'll love you forever'n' ever."
+
+Pauline came out a moment later, drawing on her driving gloves.  "I
+feel like a story-book girl, going driving this time in the morning, in
+a trap like this.  I wish you were coming, too, Hilary."
+
+"Oh, I'm like the delicate story-book girl, who has to rest, so as to
+be ready for the dissipations that are to come later.  I look the part,
+don't I?"
+
+Pauline looked down into the laughing, sun-browned face.  "If Uncle
+Paul were to see you now, he might find it hard to believe I
+hadn't--exaggerated that time."
+
+"Well, it's your fault--and his, or was, in the beginning.  You've a
+fine basket of flowers to take; Patience has done herself proud this
+morning."
+
+"It's wonderful how well that young lady can behave--at times."
+
+"Oh, she's young yet!  When I hear mother tell how like her you used to
+be, I don't feel too discouraged about Patty."
+
+"That strikes me as rather a double-edged sort of speech," Pauline
+gathered up the reins.  "Good-by, and don't get too tired."
+
+Shirley's turn was to be a combination studio tea and lawn-party, to
+which all club members, both regular and honorary, not to mention their
+relatives and friends, had been bidden.  Following this, was to be a
+high tea for the regular members.
+
+"That's Senior's share," Shirley had explained to Pauline.  "He insists
+that it's up to him to do something."
+
+Mr. Dayre was on very good terms with the "S. W. F. Club."  As for
+Shirley, after the first, no one had ever thought of her as an outsider.
+
+It was hard now, Pauline thought, as she drove briskly along, the lake
+breeze in her face, and the sound of Bedelia's quick trotting forming a
+pleasant accompaniment to her, thoughts, very hard, to realize how soon
+the summer would be over.  But perhaps--as Hilary said--next summer
+would mean the taking up again of this year's good times and
+interests,--Shirley talked of coming back.  As for the winter--Pauline
+had in mind several plans for the winter.  Those of the club members to
+stay behind must get together some day and talk them over.  One thing
+was certain, the club motto must be lived up to bravely.  If not in one
+way, why in another.  There must be no slipping back into the old
+dreary rut and routine.  It lay with themselves as to what their winter
+should be.
+
+"And there's fine sleighing here, Bedelia," she said.  "We'll get the
+old cutter out and give it a coat of paint."
+
+Bedelia tossed her head, as if she heard in imagination the gay
+jingling of the sleighbells.
+
+"But, in the meantime, here is the manor," Pauline laughed, "and it's
+the prettiest August day that ever was, and lawn-parties and such
+festivities are afoot, not sleighing parties."
+
+The manor stood facing the lake with its back to the road, a broad
+sloping lawn surrounded it on three sides, with the garden at the back.
+
+For so many seasons, it had stood lonely and neglected, that Pauline
+never came near it now, without rejoicing afresh in its altered aspect.
+Even the sight of Betsy Todd's dish towels, drying on the currant
+bushes at one side of the back door, added their touch to the sense of
+pleasant, homely life that seemed to envelop the old house nowadays.
+
+Shirley came to the gate, as Pauline drew up, Phil, Pat and Pudgey in
+close attention.  "I have to keep an eye on them," she told Pauline.
+"They've just had their baths, and they're simply wild to get out in
+the middle of the road and roll.  I've told them no self-respecting dog
+would wish to come to a lawn-party in anything but the freshest of
+white coats, but I'm afraid they're not very self-respecting."
+
+"Patience is sure Towser's heart is heavy because he is not to come;
+she has promised him a lawn-party on his own account, and that no
+grown-ups shall be invited.  She's sent you the promised flowers, and
+hinted--more or less plainly--that she would have been quite willing to
+deliver them in person."
+
+"Why didn't you bring her?  Oh, but I'm afraid you've robbed yourself!"
+
+"Oh, no, we haven't.  Mother says, flowers grow with picking."
+
+"Come on around front," Shirley suggested.  "The boys have been putting
+the awning up."
+
+"The boys" were three of Mr. Dayre's fellow artists, who had come up a
+day or two before, on a visit to the manor.  One of them, at any rate,
+deserved Shirley's title.  He came forward now.  "Looks pretty nice,
+doesn't it?" he said, with a wave of the hand towards the red and white
+striped awning, placed at the further edge of the lawn.
+
+Shirley smiled her approval, and introduced him to Pauline, adding that
+Miss Shaw was the real founder of their club.
+
+"It's a might jolly sort of club, too," young Oram said.
+
+"That is exactly what it has turned out to be," Pauline laughed.  "Are
+the vases ready, Shirley?"
+
+Shirley brought the tray of empty flower vases out on the veranda, and
+sent Harry Oram for a bucket of fresh water.  "Harry is to make the
+salad," she explained to Pauline, as he came back.  "Before he leaves
+the manor he will have developed into a fairly useful member of
+society."
+
+"You've never eaten one of my salads, Miss Shaw," Harry said.  "When
+you have, you'll think all your previous life an empty dream."
+
+"It's much more likely her later life will prove a nightmare,--for a
+while, at least," Shirley declared.  "Still, Paul, Harry does make them
+rather well.  Betsy Todd, I am sorry to say, doesn't approve of him.
+But there are so many persons and things she doesn't approve of;
+lawn-parties among the latter."
+
+Pauline nodded sympathetically; she knew Betsy Todd of old.  Her wonder
+was, that the Dayres had been able to put up with her so long, and she
+said so.
+
+"'Hobson's choice,'" Shirley answered, with a little shrug.  "She isn't
+much like our old Therese at home, is she, Harry?  But nothing would
+tempt Therese away from her beloved New York.  'Vairmon!  Nevaire have
+I heard of zat place!' she told Harry, when he interviewed her for us.
+Senior's gone to Vergennes--on business thoughts intent, or I hope they
+are.  He's under strict orders not to 'discover a single bit' along the
+way, and to get back as quickly as possible."
+
+"You see how beautifully she has us all in training?" Harry said to
+Pauline.
+
+Pauline laughed.  Suddenly she looked up from her flowers with sobered
+face.  "I wonder," she said slowly, "if you know what it's meant to
+us--you're being here this summer, Shirley?  Sometimes things do fit in
+just right after all.  It's helped out wonderfully this summer, having
+you here and the manor open."
+
+"Pauline has a fairy-story uncle down in New York," Shirley turned to
+Harry.  "You've heard of him--Mr. Paul Shaw."
+
+"Well,--rather!  I've met him, once or twice--he didn't strike me as
+much of a believer in fairy tales."
+
+"He's made us believe in them," Pauline answered.
+
+"I think Senior might have provided me with such a delightful sort of
+uncle," Shirley observed.  "I told him so, but he says, while he's
+awfully sorry I didn't mention it before, he's afraid it's too late
+now."
+
+"Uncle Paul sent us Bedelia," Pauline told the rather perplexed-looking
+Harry, "and the row-boat and the camera and--oh, other things."
+
+"Because he wanted them to have a nice, jolly summer," Shirley
+explained.  "Pauline's sister had been sick and needed brightening up."
+
+"You don't think he's looking around for a nephew to adopt, do you?"
+Harry inquired.  "A well-intentioned, intelligent young man--with no
+end of talent."
+
+"For making salads," Shirley added with a sly smile.
+
+"Oh, well, you know," Harry remarked casually, "these are what Senior
+calls my 'salad days.'"
+
+Whereupon Shirley rose without a word, carrying off her vases of
+flowers.
+
+
+The party at the manor was, like all the club affairs, a decided
+success.  Never had the old place looked so gay and animated, since
+those far-off days of its early glory.
+
+The young people coming and going--the girls in their light dresses and
+bright ribbons made a pleasant place of the lawn, with its background
+of shining water.  The tennis court, at one side of the house, was one
+of the favorite gathering spots; there were one or two boats out on the
+lake.  The pleasant informality of the whole affair proved its greatest
+charm.
+
+Mr. Allen was there, pointing out to his host the supposed end of the
+subterranean passage said to connect the point on which the manor stood
+with the old ruined French fort over on the New York side.  The
+minister was having a quiet chat with the doctor, who had made a
+special point of being there.  Mothers of club members were exchanging
+notes and congratulating each other on the good comradeship and general
+air of contentment among the young people.  Sextoness Jane was there,
+in all the glory of her best dress--one of Mrs. Shaw's handed-down
+summer ones--and with any amount of items picked up to carry home to
+Tobias, who was certain to expect a full account of this most unusual
+dissipation on his mistress's part.  Even Betsy Todd condescended to
+put on her black woolen--usually reserved for church and funerals--and
+walk about among the other guests; but always, with an air that told
+plainly how little she approved of such goings on.  The Boyds were
+there, their badges in full evidence.  And last, though far from least,
+in her own estimation, Patience was there, very crisp and white and on
+her best behavior,--for, setting aside those conditions mother had seen
+fit to burden her with, was the delightful fact that Shirley had asked
+her to help serve tea.
+
+The principal tea-table was in the studio, though there was a second
+one, presided over by Pauline and Bell, out under the awning at the
+edge of the lawn.
+
+Patience thought the studio the very nicest room she had ever been in.
+It was long and low--in reality, the old dancing-hall, for the manor
+had been built after the pattern of its first owner's English home; and
+in the deep, recessed windows, facing the lake, many a bepatched and
+powdered little belle of Colonial days had coquetted across her fan
+with her bravely-clad partner.
+
+Mr. Dayre had thrown out an extra window at one end, at right angles to
+the great stone fireplace, banked to-day with golden rod, thereby
+securing the desired north light.
+
+On the easel, stood a nearly finished painting,--a sunny corner of the
+old manor kitchen, with Betsy Todd in lilac print gown, peeling apples
+by the open window, through which one caught a glimpse of the tall
+hollyhocks in the garden beyond.
+
+Before this portrait, Patience found Sextoness Jane standing in mute
+astonishment.
+
+"Betsy looks like she was just going to say--'take your hands out of
+the dish!' doesn't she?" Patience commented.  Betsy had once helped out
+at the parsonage, during a brief illness of Miranda's, and the young
+lady knew whereof she spoke.
+
+"I'd never've thought," Jane said slowly, "that anyone'd get that fond
+of Sister Todd--as to want a picture of her!"
+
+"Oh, it's because she's such a character, you know," Patience explained
+serenely.  Jane was so good about letting one explain things.  "'A
+perfect character,' I heard one of those artist men say so."
+
+Jane shook her head dubiously.  "Not what I'd call a 'perfect'
+character--not that I've got anything against Sister Todd; but she's
+too fond of finding out a body's faults."
+
+Patience went off then in search of empty tea-cups.  She was having a
+beautiful time; at present only one cloud overshadowed her horizon.
+Already some tiresome folks were beginning to think about going.  There
+was the talk of chores to be done, suppers to get, and with the
+breaking up, must come an end to her share in the party.  For mother,
+though approached in the most delicate fashion, had proved obdurate
+regarding the further festivity to follow.  Had mother been willing to
+consider the matter, Patience would have cheerfully undertaken to
+procure the necessary invitation.  Shirley was a very obliging girl.
+
+"And really, my dears," she said, addressing the three P's
+collectively, "it does seem a pity to have to go home before the fun's
+all over.  And I could manage it--Bob would take me out rowing--if I
+coaxed--he rows very slowly.  I don't suppose, for one moment, that we
+would get back in time.  I believe--"  For fully three minutes,
+Patience sat quite still in one of the studio window seats, oblivious
+of the chatter going on all about her; then into her blue eyes came a
+look not seen there very often--"No," she said sternly, shaking her
+head at Phil, much to his surprise, for he wasn't doing anything.
+"No--it wouldn't be _square_--and there would be the most awful to-do
+afterwards."
+
+When a moment or two later, Mrs. Shaw called to her to come, that
+father was waiting, Patience responded with a very good grace.  But Mr.
+Dayre caught the wistful look in the child's face.  "Bless me," he said
+heartily.  "You're not going to take Patience home with you, Mrs. Shaw?
+Let her stay for the tea--the young people won't keep late hours, I
+assure you."
+
+"But I think--" Mrs. Shaw began very soberly.
+
+"Sometimes, I find it quite as well not to think things over," Mr.
+Dayre suggested.  "Why, dear me, I'd quite counted on Patience's being
+here.  You see, I'm not a regular member, either; and I want someone to
+keep me in countenance."
+
+So presently, Hilary felt a hand slipped eagerly into hers.  "I'm
+staying!  I'm staying!" an excited little voice announced.  "And oh, I
+just love Mr. Dayre!"
+
+Then Patience went back to her window seat to play the delightful game
+of "making believe" she hadn't stayed.  She imagined that instead, she
+was sitting between father and mother in the gig, bubbling over with
+the desire to "hi-yi" at Fanny, picking her slow way along.
+
+The studio was empty, even the dogs were outside, speeding the parting
+guests with more zeal than discretion.  But after awhile Harry Oram
+strolled in.
+
+"I'm staying!" Patience announced.  She approved of Harry.  "You're an
+artist, too, aren't you?" she remarked.
+
+"So kind of you to say so," Harry murmured.  "I have heard grave doubts
+expressed on the subject by my too impartial friends."
+
+"I mean to be one when I grow up," Patience told him, "so's I can have
+a room like this--with just rugs on the floor; rugs slide so
+nicely--and window seats and things all cluttery."
+
+"May I come and have tea with you?  I'd like it awfully."
+
+"It'll be really tea--not pretend kind," Patience said.  "But I'll have
+that sort for any children who may come.  Hilary takes pictures--she
+doesn't make them though.  Made pictures are nicer, aren't they?"
+
+"Some of them."  Harry glanced through the open doorway, to where
+Hilary sat resting.  She was "making" a picture now, he thought to
+himself, in her white dress, under the big tree, her pretty hair
+forming a frame about her thoughtful face.  Taking a portfolio from a
+table near by, he went out to where Hilary sat.
+
+"Your small sister says you take pictures," he said, drawing a chair up
+beside hers, "so I thought perhaps you'd let me show you these--they
+were taken by a friend of mine."
+
+"Oh, but mine aren't anything like these!  These are beautiful!"
+Hilary bent over the photographs he handed her; marveling over their
+soft tones.  They were mostly bits of landscape, with here and there a
+water view and one or two fleecy cloud effects.  It hardly seemed as
+though they could be really photographs.
+
+"I've never done anything like these!" she said regretfully.  "I wish I
+could--there are some beautiful views about here that would make
+charming pictures."
+
+"She didn't in the beginning," Harry said, "She's lame; it was an
+accident, but she can never be quite well again, so she took this up,
+as an amusement at first, but now it's going to be her profession."
+
+Hilary bent over the photographs again.  "And you really think--anyone
+could learn to do it?"
+
+"No, not anyone; but I don't see why the right sort of person couldn't."
+
+"I wonder--if I could develop into the right sort."
+
+"May I come and see what you have done--and talk it over?" Harry asked.
+"Since this friend of mine took it up, I'm ever so interested in camera
+work."
+
+"Indeed you may," Hilary answered.  She had never thought of her camera
+holding such possibilities within it, of its growing into something
+better and more satisfying than a mere playmate of the moment.
+
+"Rested?" Pauline asked, coming up.  "Supper's nearly ready."
+
+"I wasn't very tired.  Paul, come and look at these."
+
+Supper was served on the lawn; the pleasantest, most informal, of
+affairs, the presence of the older members of the party serving to turn
+the gay give and take of the young folks into deeper and wider
+channels, and Shirley's frequent though involuntary--"Do you remember,
+Senior?" calling out more than one vivid bit of travel, of description
+of places, known to most of them only through books.
+
+Later, down on the lower end of the lawn, with the moon making a path
+of silver along the water, and the soft hush of the summer night over
+everything, Shirley brought out her guitar, singing for them strange
+folk-songs, picked up in her rambles with her father.  Afterwards, the
+whole party sang songs that they all knew, ending up at last with the
+club song.
+
+"'It's a habit to be happy,'" the fresh young voices chorused, sending
+the tune far out across the lake; and presently, from a boat on its
+further side, it was whistled back to them.
+
+"Who is it, I wonder?" Edna said,
+
+"Give it up," Tom answered.  "Someone who's heard it--there've been
+plenty of opportunities for folks to hear it."
+
+"Well it isn't a bad gospel to scatter broadcast," Bob remarked.
+
+"And maybe it's someone who doesn't live about here, and he will go
+away taking our tune with him, for other people to catch up," Hilary
+suggested.
+
+"But if he only has the tune and not the words," Josie objected, "what
+use will that be?"
+
+"The spirit of the words is in the tune," Pauline said.  "No one could
+whistle or sing it and stay grumpy."
+
+"They'd have to 'put the frown away awhile, and try a little sunny
+smile,' wouldn't they?" Patience observed.
+
+Patience had been a model of behavior all the evening.  Mother would be
+sure to ask if she had been good, when they got home.  That was one of
+those aggravating questions that only time could relieve her from.  No
+one ever asked Paul, or Hilary, that--when they'd been anywhere.
+
+As Mr. Dayre had promised, the party broke up early, going off in the
+various rigs they had come in.  Tom and Josie went in the trap with the
+Shaws.  "It's been perfectly lovely--all of it," Josie said, looking
+back along the road they were leaving.  "Every good time we have seems
+the best one yet."
+
+"You wait 'til my turn comes," Pauline told her.  "I've such a scheme
+in my head."
+
+"Am I in it?" Patience begged.  She was in front, between Tom, who was
+driving, and Hilary, then she leaned forward, they were nearly home,
+and the lights of the parsonage showed through the trees.  "There's a
+light in the parlor--there's company!"
+
+Pauline looked, too.  "And one up in our old room, Hilary.  Goodness,
+it must be a visiting minister!  I didn't know father was expecting
+anyone."
+
+"I bet you!" Patience jumped excitedly up and down.  "I just bet it
+isn't any visiting minister--but a visiting--uncle!  I feel it in my
+bones, as Miranda says."
+
+"Nonsense!" Pauline declared.
+
+"Maybe it isn't nonsense, Paul!" Hilary said.
+
+"I feel it in my bones," Patience repeated.  "I just _knew_ Uncle Paul
+would come up--a story-book uncle would be sure to."
+
+"Well, here we are," Tom laughed.  "You'll know for certain pretty
+quick."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE END OF SUMMER
+
+It was Uncle Paul, and perhaps no one
+was more surprised at his unexpected coming,
+than he himself.
+
+That snap-shot of Hilary's had considerable
+to do with it; bringing home to him the
+sudden realization of the passing of the years.
+For the first time, he had allowed himself to
+face the fact that it was some time now since
+he had crossed the summit of the hill, and that
+under present conditions, his old age promised
+to be a lonely, cheerless affair.
+
+He had never had much to do with young
+people; but, all at once, it seemed to him that
+it might prove worth his while to cultivate
+the closer acquaintance of these nieces of his.
+Pauline, in particular, struck him as likely to
+improve upon a nearer acquaintance.  And
+that afternoon, as he rode up Broadway, he
+found himself wondering how she would
+enjoy the ride; and all the sights and wonders
+of the great city.
+
+Later, over his solitary dinner, he suddenly
+decided to run up to Winton the next day.
+He would not wire them, he would rather like
+to take Phil by surprise.
+
+So he had arrived at the parsonage,
+driving up in Jed's solitary hack, and much plied
+with information, general and personal, on the
+way, just as the minister and his wife reached
+home from the manor.
+
+"And, oh, my!  Doesn't father look
+tickled to death!" Patience declared, coming
+in to her sisters' room that night, ostensibly
+to have an obstinate knot untied, but inwardly
+determined to make a third at the usual
+bedtime talk for that once, at least.  It wasn't
+often they all came up together.
+
+"He looks mighty glad," Pauline said.
+
+"And isn't it funny, bearing him called
+Phil?"  Patience curled herself up in the
+cozy corner.  "I never've thought of father
+as Phil."
+
+Hilary paused in the braiding of her long
+hair.  "I'm glad we've got to know him--Uncle
+Paul, I mean--through his letters, and
+all the lovely things he's done for us; else, I
+think I'd have been very much afraid of him."
+
+"So am I," Pauline assented.  "I see now
+what Mr. Oram meant--he doesn't look as if
+he believed much in fairy stories.  But I like
+his looks--he's so nice and tall and straight."
+
+"He used to have red hair, before it turned
+gray," Hilary said, "so that must be a family
+trait; your chin's like his, Paul, too,--so
+square and determined."
+
+"Is mine?" Patience demanded.
+
+"You cut to bed, youngster," Pauline
+commanded.  "You're losing all your beauty
+sleep; and really, you know--"
+
+Patience went to stand before the mirror.
+"Maybe I ain't--pretty--yet; but I'm going
+to be--some day.  Mr. Dayre says he likes
+red hair, I asked him.  He says for me not to
+worry; I'll have them all sitting up and taking notice yet."
+
+At which Pauline bore promptly down
+upon her, escorting her in person to the door
+of her own room.  "And you'd better get to
+bed pretty quickly, too, Hilary," she advised,
+coming back.  "You've had enough excitement for one day."
+
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw stayed a week; it was a
+busy week for the parsonage folk and for
+some other people besides.  Before it was
+over, the story-book uncle had come to know
+his nieces and Winton fairly thoroughly;
+while they, on their side, had grown very well
+acquainted with the tall, rather silent man,
+who had a fashion of suggesting the most
+delightful things to do in the most matter-of-fact manner.
+
+There were one or two trips decidedly
+outside that ten-mile limit, including an all day
+sail up the lake, stopping for the night at a
+hotel on the New York shore and returning
+by the next day's boat.  There was a visit to
+Vergennes, which took in a round of the shops,
+a concert, and another night away from home.
+
+"Was there ever such a week!" Hilary
+sighed blissfully one morning, as she and her
+uncle waited on the porch for Bedelia and
+the trap.  Hilary was to drive him over to
+The Maples for dinner.
+
+"Or such a summer altogether," Pauline
+added, from just inside the study window.
+
+"Then Winton has possibilities?" Mr. Shaw asked.
+
+"I should think it has; we ought to be
+eternally grateful to you for making us find
+them out," Pauline declared.
+
+Mr. Shaw smiled, more as if to himself.  "I
+daresay they're not all exhausted yet."
+
+"Perhaps," Hilary said slowly, "some
+places are like some people, the longer and
+better you know them, the more you keep
+finding out in them to like."
+
+"Father says," Pauline suggested, "that one
+finds, as a rule, what one is looking for."
+
+"Here we are," her uncle exclaimed, as
+Patience appeared, driving Bedelia.  "Do you
+know," he said, as he and Hilary turned out
+into the wide village street, "I haven't seen the
+schoolhouse yet?"
+
+"We can go around that way.  It isn't
+much of a building," Hilary answered.
+
+"I suppose it serves its purpose."
+
+"It is said to be a very good school for the
+size of the place."  Hilary turned Bedelia
+up the little by-road, leading to the old
+weather-beaten schoolhouse, standing back
+from the road in an open space of bare ground.
+
+"You and Pauline are through here?" her uncle asked.
+
+"Paul is.  I would've been this June, if I
+hadn't broken down last winter."
+
+"You will be able to go on this fall?"
+
+"Yes, indeed.  Dr. Brice said so the other
+day.  He says, if all his patients got on so
+well, by not following his advice, he'd have
+to shut up shop, but that, fortunately for
+him, they haven't all got a wise uncle down in
+New York, to offer counter-advice."
+
+"Each in his turn," Mr. Shaw remarked,
+adding, "and Pauline considers herself through school?"
+
+"I--I suppose so.  I know she would like
+to go on--but we've no higher school here and--She
+read last winter, quite a little, with
+father.  Pauline's ever so clever."
+
+"Supposing you both had an opportunity--for
+it must be both, or neither, I judge--and
+the powers that be consented--how about
+going away to school this winter?"
+
+Hilary dropped the reins.  "Oh!" she
+cried, "you mean--"
+
+"I have a trick of meaning what I say," her
+uncle said, smiling at her.
+
+"I wish I could say--what I want to--and
+can't find words for--" Hilary said.
+
+"We haven't consulted the higher authorities
+yet, you know."
+
+"And--Oh, I don't see how mother could
+get on without us, even if--"
+
+"Mothers have a knack at getting along
+without a good many things--when it means
+helping their young folks on a bit,"
+Mr. Shaw remarked.  "I'll have a talk with her
+and your father to-night."
+
+That evening, pacing up and down the
+front veranda with his brother, Mr. Shaw
+said, with his customary abruptness, "You
+seem to have fitted in here, Phil,--perhaps, you
+were in the right of it, after all.  I take it
+you haven't had such a hard time, in some ways."
+
+The minister did not answer immediately.
+Looking back nearly twenty years, he told
+himself, that he did not regret that early
+choice of his.  He had fitted into the life here;
+he and his people had grown together.  It had
+not always been smooth sailing and more than
+once, especially the past year or so, his
+narrow means had pressed him sorely, but on the
+whole, he had found his lines cast in a
+pleasant place, and was not disposed to rebel
+against his heritage.
+
+"Yes," he said, at last, "I have fitted in;
+too easily, perhaps.  I never was ambitious,
+you know."
+
+"Except in the accumulating of books," his
+brother suggested.
+
+The minister smiled.  "I have not been
+able to give unlimited rein even to that mild
+ambition.  Fortunately, the rarer the
+opportunity, the greater the pleasure it brings
+with it--and the old books never lose their charm."
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw flicked the ashes from his
+cigar.  "And the girls--you expect them to
+fit in, too?"
+
+"It is their home."  A note the elder
+brother knew of old sounded in the younger
+man's voice.
+
+"Don't mount your high horse just yet,
+Phil," he said.  "I'm not going to rub you up
+the wrong way--at least, I don't mean to; but
+you were always an uncommonly hard chap to
+handle--in some matters.  I grant you, it is
+their home and not a had sort of home for a
+girl to grow up in."  Mr. Shaw stood for a
+moment at the head of the steps, looking off
+down the peaceful, shadowy street.  It had
+been a pleasant week; he had enjoyed it
+wonderfully.  He meant to have many more such.
+But to live here always!  Already the city
+was calling to him; he was homesick for its
+rush and bustle, the sense of life and movement.
+
+"You and I stand as far apart to-day, in
+some matters, Phil, as we did twenty--thirty
+years ago," he said presently, "and that eldest
+daughter of yours--I'm a fair hand at reading
+character or I shouldn't be where I am to-day,
+if I were not--is more like me than you."
+
+"So I have come to think--lately."
+
+"That second girl takes after you; she
+would never have written that letter to me
+last May."
+
+"No, Hilary would not have at the time--"
+
+"Oh, I can guess how you felt about it at
+the time.  But, look here, Phil, you've got
+over that--surely?  After all, I like to think
+now that Pauline only hurried on the
+inevitable."  Mr. Paul Shaw laid his hand on the
+minister's shoulder.  "Nearly twenty years is
+a pretty big piece out of a lifetime.  I see now
+how much I have been losing all these years."
+
+"It has been a long time, Paul; and,
+perhaps, I have been to blame in not trying more
+persistently to heal the breach between us.  I
+assure you that I have regretted it daily."
+
+"You always did have a lot more pride in
+your make-up than a man of your profession
+has any right to allow himself, Phil.  But if
+you like, I'm prepared to point out to you
+right now how you can make it up to me.
+Here comes Lady Shaw and we won't
+waste time getting to business."
+
+That night, as Pauline and Hilary were in
+their own room, busily discussing, for by no
+means the first time that day, what Uncle Paul
+had said to Hilary that morning, and just
+how he had looked, when he said it, and was
+it at all possible that father would consent,
+and so on, _ad libitum_, their mother tapped at the door.
+
+Pauline ran to open it.  "Good news, or
+not?" she demanded.  "Yes, or no, Mother Shaw?"
+
+"That is how you take it," Mrs. Shaw
+answered.  She was glad, very glad, that this
+unforeseen opportunity should be given her
+daughters; and yet--it meant the first break
+in the home circle, the first leaving home for them.
+
+
+Mr. Paul Shaw left the next morning.
+"I'll try and run up for a day or two, before
+the girls go to school," he promised his
+sister-in-law.  "Let me know, as soon as you have
+decided _where_ to send them."
+
+Patience was divided in her opinion, as to
+this new plan.  It would be lonesome without
+Paul and Hilary; but then, for the time
+being, she would be, to all intents and purposes,
+"Miss Shaw."  Also, Bedelia was not going
+to boarding-school--on the whole, the
+arrangement had its advantages.  Of course,
+later, she would have her turn at school--Patience
+meant to devote a good deal of her
+winter's reading to boarding-school stories.
+
+She told Sextoness Jane so, when that
+person appeared, just before supper time.
+
+Jane looked impressed.  "A lot of things
+keep happening to you folks right along," she
+observed.  "Nothing's ever happened to me,
+'cept mumps--and things of that sort; you
+wouldn't call them interesting.  The girls to home?"
+
+"They're 'round on the porch, looking at
+some photos Mr. Oram's brought over; and
+he's looking at Hilary's.  Hilary's going in
+for some other kind of picture taking.  I wish
+she'd leave her camera home, when she goes to
+school.  Do you want to speak to them about
+anything particular?"
+
+"I'll wait a bit," Jane sat down on the
+garden-bench beside Patience.
+
+"There, he's gone!" the latter said, as the
+front gate clicked a few moments later.  "O
+Paul!" she called, "You're wanted, Paul!"
+
+"You and Hilary going to be busy
+tonight?" Jane asked, as Pauline came across
+the lawn.
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"I ain't," Patience remarked.
+
+"Well," Jane said, "it ain't prayer-meeting
+night, and it ain't young peoples' night and it
+ain't choir practice night, so I thought maybe
+you'd like me to take my turn at showing you
+something.  Not all the club--like's not they
+wouldn't care for it, but if you think they
+would, why, you can show it to them sometime."
+
+"Just we three then?" Pauline asked.
+"Hilary and I can go."
+
+"So can I--if you tell mother you want me
+to," Patience put in.
+
+"Is it far?" her sister questioned Jane.
+
+"A good two miles--we'd best walk--we
+can rest after we get there.  Maybe, if you
+like, you'd better ask Tom and Josie.  Your
+ma'll be better satisfied if he goes along, I
+reckon.  I'll come for you at about half-past
+seven."
+
+"All right, thank you ever so much," Pauline
+said, and went to tell Hilary, closely
+pursued by Patience.  However, Mrs. Shaw
+vetoed Pauline's proposition that Patience
+should make one of the party.
+
+"Not every time, my dear," she explained.
+
+Promptly at half-past seven Jane
+appeared.  "All ready?" she said, as the four
+young people came to meet her.  "You don't
+want to go expecting anything out of the
+common.  Like's not, you've all seen it a heap
+of times, but maybe not to take particular
+notice of it."
+
+She led the way through the garden to the
+lane running past her cottage, where Tobias
+sat in solitary dignity on the doorstep, down
+the lane to where it merged in to what was
+nothing more than a field path.
+
+"Are we going to the lake?" Hilary asked.
+
+Jane nodded.
+
+"But not out on the water," Josie said.
+"You're taking us too far below the pier for that."
+
+Jane smiled quietly.  "It'll be on the water--what
+you're going to see," she was getting
+a good deal of pleasure out of her small
+mystery, and when they reached the low shore,
+fringed with the tall sea-grass, she took her
+party a few steps along it to where an old log
+lay a little back from the water.  "I reckon
+we'll have to wait a bit," she said, "but it'll
+be 'long directly."
+
+They sat down in a row, the young people
+rather mystified.  Apparently the broad
+expanse of almost motionless water was quite
+deserted.  There was a light breeze blowing
+and the soft swishing of the tiny waves against
+the bank was the only sound to break the
+stillness; the sky above the long irregular range
+of mountains on the New York side, still wore
+its sunset colors, the lake below sending hack
+a faint reflection of them.
+
+But presently these faded until only the
+afterglow was left, to merge in turn into the
+soft summer twilight, through which the stars
+began to glimpse, one by one.
+
+The little group had been mostly silent,
+each busy with his or her thoughts; so far as
+the young people were concerned, happy
+thoughts enough; for if the closing of each
+day brought their summer nearer to its
+ending, the fall would bring with it new
+experiences, an entering of new scenes.
+
+"There!"  Sextoness Jane broke the silence,
+pointing up the lake, to where a tiny point of
+red showed like a low-hung star through the
+gathering darkness.  Moment by moment,
+other lights came into view, silently, steadily,
+until it seemed like some long, gliding
+sea-serpent, creeping down towards them through
+the night.
+
+"A tow!" Josie cried under her breath.
+
+They had all seen it, times without number,
+before.  The long line of canal boats being
+towed down the lake to the canal below; the
+red lanterns at either end of each boat
+showing as they came.  But to-night, infected
+perhaps, by the pride, the evident delight, in
+Jane's voice, the old familiar sight held them
+with the new interest the past months had
+brought to bear upon so many old, familiar things.
+
+"It is--wonderful," Pauline said at last.
+"It might be a scene from--fairyland, almost."
+
+"Me--I love to see them come stealing long
+like that through the dark," Jane said slowly
+and a little hesitatingly.  It was odd to be
+telling confidences to anyone except Tobias.
+"I don't know where they come from, nor
+where they're a-going to.  Many's the night
+I walk over here just on the chance of seeing
+one.  Mostly, this time of year, you're pretty
+likely to catch one.  When I was younger, I
+used to sit and fancy myself going aboard on
+one of them and setting off for strange parts.
+I wasn't looking to settle down here in Winton
+all my days; but I reckon, maybe, it's just's
+well--anyhow, when I got the freedom to
+travel, I'd got out of the notion of it--and
+perhaps, there's no telling, I might have been
+terribly disappointed.  And there ain't any
+hindrance 'gainst my setting off--in my own
+mind--every time I sits here and watches a
+tow go down the lake.  I've seen a heap of
+big churches in my travels--it's mostly easier
+'magining about them--churches are pretty
+much alike I reckon, though I ain't seen many, I'll admit."
+
+No one answered for a moment, but Jane,
+used to Tobias for a listener, did not mind.
+Then in the darkness, Hilary laid a hand
+softly over the work-worn ones clasped on
+Jane's lap.  It was hard to imagine Jane
+young and full of youthful fancies and
+longings; yet years ago there had been a Jane--not
+Sextoness Jane then--who had found
+Winton dull and dreary and had longed to get
+away.  But for her, there had been no one to
+wave the magic wand, that should transform
+the little Vermont village into a place filled
+with new and unexplored charms.  Never in
+all Jane's many summers, had she known one
+like this summer of theirs; and for them--the
+wonder was by no means over--the years
+ahead were bright with untold possibilities.
+Hilary sighed for very happiness, wondering
+if she were the same girl who had rocked
+listlessly in the hammock that June morning,
+protesting that she didn't care for "half-way" things.
+
+"Tired?" Pauline asked.
+
+"I was thinking," her sister answered.
+
+"Well, the tow's gone."  Jane got up to go.
+
+"I'm ever so glad we came, thank you so
+much, Jane," Pauline said heartily.
+
+"I wonder what'll have happened by the
+time we all see our next tow go down," Josie
+said, as they started towards home.
+
+"We may see a good many more than one
+before the general exodus," her brother answered.
+
+"But we won't have time to come watch for
+them.  Oh, Paul, just think, only a little
+while now--"
+
+Tom slipped into step with Hilary, a little
+behind the others.  "I never supposed the old
+soul had it in her," he said, glancing to where
+Jane trudged heavily on ahead.  "Still, I
+suppose she was young--once; though I've never
+thought of her being so before."
+
+"Yes," Hilary said.  "I wonder,--maybe,
+she's been better off, after all, right, here at
+home.  She wouldn't have got to be
+Sextoness Jane anywhere else, probably."
+
+Tom glanced at her quickly.  "Is there a
+hidden meaning--subject to be carefully avoided?"
+
+Hilary laughed.  "As you like."
+
+"So you and Paul are off on your travels, too?"
+
+"Yes, though I can hardly believe it yet."
+
+"And just as glad to go as any of us."
+
+"Oh, but we're coming back--after we've
+been taught all manner of necessary things."
+
+"Edna'll be the only one of you girls left
+behind; it's rough on her."
+
+"It certainly is; we'll all have to write her
+heaps of letters."
+
+"Much time there'll be for letter-writing,
+outside of the home ones," Tom said.
+
+"Speaking of time," Josie turned towards
+them, "we're going to be busier than any bee
+ever dreamed of being, before or since Dr. Watts."
+
+They certainly were busy days that
+followed.  So many of the young folks were
+going off that fall that a good many of the
+meetings of "The S. W. F. Club" resolved
+themselves into sewing-bees, for the girl members only.
+
+"If we'd known how jolly they were, we'd
+have tried them before," Bell declared one
+morning, dropping down on the rug Pauline
+had spread under the trees at one end of the
+parsonage lawn.
+
+Patience, pulling bastings with a business-like
+air, nodded her curly head wisely.  "Miranda says,
+folks mostly get 'round to enjoying
+their blessings 'bout the time they come to lose them."
+
+"Has the all-important question been
+settled yet, Paul?" Edna asked, looking up from
+her work.  She might not be going away to
+school, but even so, that did not debar one
+from new fall clothes at home.
+
+"They're coming to Vergennes with me,"
+Bell said.  "Then we can all come home
+together Friday nights."
+
+"They're coming to Boston with me," Josie
+corrected, "then we'll be back together for
+Thanksgiving."
+
+Shirley, meekly taking her first sewing
+lessons under Pauline's instructions, and frankly
+declaring that she didn't at all like them,
+dropped the hem she was turning.  "They're
+coming to New York with me; and in the
+between-times we'll have such fun that they'll
+never want to come home."
+
+Pauline laughed.  "It looks as though
+Hilary and I would have a busy winter
+between you all.  It is a comfort to know where
+we are going."
+
+"Remember!" she warned, when later the
+party broke up.  "Four o'clock Friday afternoon!  Sharp!"
+
+"Are we going out in a blaze of glory?"
+Bell questioned.
+
+"You might tell us where we are going,
+now, Paul," Josie urged.
+
+Pauline shook her head.  "You wait until
+Friday, like good little girls.  Mind, you all
+bring wraps; it'll be chilly coming home."
+
+Pauline's turn was to be the final wind-up
+of the club's regular outings.  No one outside
+the home folks, excepting Tom, had been
+taken into her confidence--it had been
+necessary to press him into service.  And when, on
+Friday afternoon, the young people gathered
+at the parsonage, all but those named were
+still in the dark.
+
+Besides the regular members, Mrs. Shaw,
+Mr. Dayre, Mr. Allen, Harry Oram and Patience
+were there; the minister and Dr. Brice
+had promised to join the party later if possible.
+
+As a rule, the club picnics were cooperative
+affairs; but to-day the members, by special
+request, arrived empty-handed.  Mr. Paul
+Shaw, learning that Pauline's turn was yet to
+come, had insisted on having a share in it.
+
+"I am greatly interested in this club," he
+had explained.  "I like results, and I think,"
+he glanced at Hilary's bright happy face,
+"that the 'S. W. F. Club' has achieved at least
+one very good result."
+
+And on the morning before the eventful
+Friday, a hamper had arrived from New
+York, the watching of the unpacking of which
+had again transformed Patience, for the time,
+from an interrogation to an exclamation point.
+
+"It's a beautiful hamper," she explained to
+Towser.  "It truly is--because father says,
+it's the inner, not the outer, self that makes
+for real beauty, or ugliness; and it certainly
+was the inside of that hamper that counted.
+I wish you were going, Towser.  See here,
+suppose you follow on kind of quietly
+to-morrow afternoon--don't show up too soon, and
+I guess I can manage it."
+
+Which piece of advice Towser must have
+understood.  At any rate, he acted upon it to
+the best of his ability, following the party at a
+discreet distance through the garden and down
+the road towards the lake; and only when the
+halt at the pier came, did he venture near, the
+most insinuating of dogs.
+
+And so successfully did Patience manage
+it, that when the last boat-load pushed off
+from shore, Towser sat erect on the narrow
+bow seat, blandly surveying his fellow
+voyagers.  "He does so love picnics," Patience
+explained to Mr. Dayre, "and this is
+the last particular one for the season.  I kind
+of thought he'd go along and I slipped in a
+little paper of bones."
+
+From the boat ahead came the chorus.
+"We're out on the wide ocean sailing."
+
+"Not much!" Bob declared.  "I wish we
+were--the water's quiet as a mill-pond this afternoon."
+
+For the great lake, appreciating perhaps
+the importance of the occasion, had of its many
+moods chosen to wear this afternoon its
+sweetest, most beguiling one, and lay, a broad
+stretch of sparkling, rippling water, between
+its curving shores.
+
+Beyond, the range of mountains rose dark
+and somber against the cloud-flecked sky,
+their tops softened by the light haze that told
+of coming autumn.
+
+And presently, from boat to boat, went the
+call, "We're going to Port Edward!  Why
+didn't we guess?"
+
+"But that's not _in_ Winton," Edna protested.
+
+"Of it, if not in it," Jack Ward assured them.
+
+"Do you reckon you can show us anything
+new about that old fort, Paul Shaw?" Tracy
+demanded.  "Why, I could go all over it
+blindfolded."
+
+"Not to show the new--to unfold the old,"
+Pauline told him.
+
+"That sounds like a quotation."
+
+"It is--in substance," Pauline looked across
+her shoulder to where Mr. Allen sat,
+imparting information to Harry Oram.
+
+"So that's why you asked the old fellow,"
+Tracy said.  "Was that kind?"
+
+They were rounding the slender point on
+which the tall, white lighthouse stood, and
+entering the little cove where visitors to the fort
+usually beached their boats.
+
+A few rods farther inland, rose the tall,
+grass-covered, circular embankment,
+surrounding the crumbling, gray walls, the outer
+shells of the old barracks.
+
+At the entrance to the enclosure, Tom
+suddenly stepped ahead, barring the way.  "No
+passing within this fort without the
+counter-sign," he declared.  "Martial law, this afternoon."
+
+It was Bell who discovered it.  "'It's a
+habit to be happy,'" she suggested, and Tom
+drew back for her to enter.  But one by one,
+he exacted the password from each.
+
+Inside, within the shade of those old, gray
+walls, a camp-fire had been built and
+camp-kettle swung, hammocks had been hung under
+the trees and when cushions were scattered
+here and there the one-time fort bore anything
+but a martial air.
+
+But something of the spirit of the past must
+have been in the air that afternoon, or perhaps,
+the spirit of the coming changes; for this
+picnic--though by no means lacking in charm--was
+not as gay and filled with light-hearted
+chaff as usual.  There was more talking in
+quiet groups, or really serious searching for
+some trace of those long-ago days of storm and stress.
+
+With the coming of evening, the fire was
+lighted and the cloth laid within range of its
+flickering shadows.  The night breeze had
+sprung up and from outside the sloping
+embankment they caught the sound of the waves
+breaking on the beach.  True to their
+promise, the minister and Dr. Brice appeared at
+the time appointed and were eagerly welcomed
+by the young people.
+
+Supper was a long, delightful affair that
+night, with much talk of the days when the
+fort had been devoted to far other purposes
+than the present; and the young people,
+listening to the tales Mr. Allen told in his quiet yet
+strangely vivid way, seemed to hear the slow
+creeping on of the boats outside and to be
+listening in the pauses of the wind for the
+approach of the enemy.
+
+"I'll take it back, Paul," Tracy told her, as
+they were repacking the baskets.  "Even the
+old fort has developed new interests."
+
+"And next summer the 'S. W. F. Club' will
+continue its good work," Jack said.
+
+Going back, Pauline found herself sitting
+in the stern of one of the boats, beside her
+father.  The club members were singing the
+club song.  But Pauline's thoughts had
+suddenly gone back to that wet May afternoon.
+
+She could see the dreary, rain-swept garden,
+hear the beating of the drops on the
+window-panes.  How long ago and remote it all
+seemed; how far from the hopeless discontent,
+the vague longings, the real anxiety of that
+time, she and Hilary had traveled.  She
+looked up impulsively.  "There's one thing,"
+she said, "we've had one summer that I shall
+always feel would be worth reliving.  And
+we're going to have more of them."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," Mr. Shaw said.
+
+Pauline looked about her--the lanterns at
+the ends of the boats threw dancing lights out
+across the water, no longer quiet; overhead,
+the sky was bright with stars.  "Everything
+is so beautiful," the girl said slowly.  "One
+seems to feel it more--every day."
+
+"'The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the
+Lord hath made even both of them,'" her
+father quoted gravely.
+
+Pauline drew a quick breath.  "The
+hearing ear and the seeing eye"--it was a good
+thought to take with them--out into the new
+life, among the new scenes.  One would need
+them everywhere--out in the world, as well as
+in Winton.  And then, from the boat just
+ahead, sounded Patience's clear
+treble,--"'There's a Good Time Coming.'"
+
+
+
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