g how grand it was, and wished she
could be out in a midnight storm every week.

It was after midnight, and every one at Mr. Fisher's was asleep; but Tom
knocked them up, and Mr. Fisher was very much amused, and Mrs. Fisher was
very kind and hospitable, and built up a fire, and said they should be
perfectly dry and warm before they went to bed.

So the girls bade Tom good-night, and he went back to Mr. Hallam, and
they, feeling very cold and sleepy and drenched, were glad enough to be
taken care of, and put to bed like babies, after Mrs. Fisher's good,
motherly fashion.

"Sarah," said Gypsy, sleepily, just as Sarah was beginning to dream. "A
feather-bed, and--and _pil_lows! (with a little jump to keep awake long
enough to finish her sentence) are a little better--on the whole--than a
mud--pud----"

Just there she went to sleep. The next day it poured from morning till
night. That was just what Mr. Hallam and Tom liked, so they fished all
day, and the girls amused themselves as best they might in Mr. Fisher's
barn. The day after it rained in snatches, and the sun shone in little
spasms between. A council of exigencies met in Mr. Hallam's tent, and it
was unanimously decided to go home. Even Gypsy began to long for civilized
life, though she declared that she had never in all her life had such a
good time as she had had that week.

So Mr. Fisher harnessed and drove them briskly down the mountain, and
"from afar off" Gypsy saw her mother's face, watching for her at the
door--a little anxious; very glad to see her back.

CHAPTER XI

GYPSY'S OPINION OF BOSTON

Just at the end of the vacation, it was suddenly announced that Miss
Melville was not going to teach any more.

"How funny!" said Gypsy. "Last term she expected to, just as much as
anything. I don't see what's the reason. Now I shall have to go to the
high school."

It chanced that they were remodelling some of the rooms at the high
school, and the winter term, which would otherwise have commenced in
September, was delayed till the first of October.

Gypsy had jumped on all the hay-cocks, and picked all the huckleberries,
and eaten all the early Davises, and gone on all the picnics that she
could, and was just ready to settle down contentedly to school and study;
so the news from Miss Melville was not, on the whole, very agreeable. What
to do with herself, for another long month of vacation, was more than she
knew.

She wandered about the house