rs tell Miss Almiry. She's goin' to take you along
wid her when she goes."

"Richard," said Ford, "are you going?"

"Habn't heerd a word about dat."

"Don't you go back on your friends, Richard. Be all ready in time,
sure's you live, and go with us, or I'll complain to Dr. Brandegee."

Dick's grin was a wide one; but he responded,--

"I'll be ready. See 'f I ain't."

The voice of Almira, calling his name at the foot of the stairs,
prevented any further conversation just then; and Dick found,
afterwards, that he had undertaken a task of some difficulty. He hardly
knew when or where he squeezed out the time for the proper polishing of
his shoes, or the due arrangement of his magnificent red necktie; but
both feats were accomplished most faithfully.

The subject of church-going came up again, incidentally, at the
breakfast-table; and the remarks of her young boarders met the emphatic
approval of Mrs. Myers and her daughter. Perhaps because neither of them
had been near enough, after Dick dodged out of their room at the end of
his early call, to hear Dabney Kinzer remark,--

"Ford, don't you think we can find our way across the green without any
help from the ladies?"

"I am pondering that matter. What do you say, Frank?"

"We must get out of it if we can politely. I don't just see how we'll do
it."

"Do it? Why, we'll all wait for Dick Lee."

Mrs. Myers took a little too much for granted; and when the hour came
for starting, there came a slight disturbance in the smooth current of
her calculations.

"Mr. Foster," she called out, in her best voice, from half way up the
stairs, "the first bell is ringing. Are you and your friends ready?"

"Ringing?" responded Ford. "So it is! I regret to say we are not yet
ready to go."

At the same moment Dab was whispering,--

"We mustn't start until it's nearly done tolling."

"What's that?" asked Frank.

"Don't you know? It's always so in the country. First they ring the
bell, as it's ringing now. That's to set people a-going. Then they toll
it. You'll hear in a few minutes. That means, the time's up."

Ford Foster's city training had not taught him as much as that, but he
was glad to know it.

Mrs. Myers once more urged upon them the necessity of making haste.

"It won't do to be late," she said. "I never allow myself to be a minute
behind time."

The last clause sounded a very, very little impatient; but Ford once
more politely expressed his sorrow, and abs