n't any place to go this summer, they bunched him in with
us. But you can see what he is at one look."

"Oh, I did,--I did!" murmured Miss Minna. "I saw at the very first that he
was not our sort; but, being with nice boys like you, I thought he must be
all right. He isn't bad-looking, and such nerve for a bootblack! Just look
how he is making up to little Polly Forester!"

To an impartial observer it would have really seemed the other way. Polly
herself was "making up" most openly to this nicest boy she ever saw.
Tripping along by Dan's side, she was extending a general invitation, in
which Dan was specialized above all others.

"I am going to have a birthday party next week, and I want you to come,
and bring all the other boys from Killykinick. It's the first party I've
ever had; but mamma is feeling better this year, and I'll be ten years
old, and she's going to have things just lovely for me,--music and
dancing, and ice-cream made into flowers and birds, and a Jack Horner pie
with fine presents in it. Wouldn't you like to come, Dan?"

"You bet!" was the ready answer; for a party of young persons like Miss
Polly was, from his outlook, a very simple affair. "When is it coming
off?"

"Thursday," said Polly,--"Thursday evening at six, in our garden. And you
needn't dress up. Boys hate to dress up, I know; Tom and Jack won't go any
place where they have to wear stiff collars."

"I'm with them there," rejoined Dan. "Had to get into one on Commencement
Day, and never want to try another."

"You see, I don't care for some boys," said the expectant hostess,
confidentially. "All Tom's and Jack's friends are in long trousers. Some
girls like that, but I don't: they look too grown up, and they stand
around and tease, and won't play games, and are just horrid. You would
play games, I'm sure."

"Just try me at them," answered Dan, grinning.

"Oh, I know you would! So I want you all to come," said Miss Polly, who,
having reached her own gateway, paused for a general good-bye. "I don't
know your names, but I want you all to come with Dan to my party."

"If we can get here," replied Dan. "Captain Jeb wouldn't trust us to sail
his boat, and I don't know that he could come with us."

"Oh, he will,--he must!" persisted Polly.

"He ain't the will-and-must kind," said Dan, nodding.

"Then maybe I can send for you," the little lady went on eagerly. "My
cousins are coming over from Rock-haven on dad's yacht, and I'll make the