said this selfish lady, fretfully. "Lily thinks she
is grown up now. No. I approve of her going with a lot of little girls
into camp. And she wants to go with your Laura's crowd, Mrs.
Belding."

"I'm sure--Laura would be pleased," said Mrs Belding, sweetly, without
an idea that she was laying up trouble in store for Mother Wit.

"Oh, then, I can leave it with you, dear Mrs. Belding?" cried Mrs.
Pendleton, with uncanny eagerness. "You will arrange it?"

"Why--er--I presume Laura and her friends would have no objection to
another of their schoolmates joining them. I understand Mrs. Morse
will chaperon them----"

"And quite a proper person for that office, too," agreed Mrs.
Pendleton. "I presume they will take along a maid."

"Oh! I do not know," said Mrs. Belding, beginning to feel somewhat
worried now. "I imagine the girls expect to do for themselves----"

"Oh! I will send a maid with Lily. At least, I will pay the wages of
one who will do for all the girls--in a way."

She bustled away to find Lily after the march. Mrs. Belding waited for
her daughter in more or less trepidation. It had suddenly crossed her
mind that Lily Pendleton was seldom at her house with the friends that
Mother Wit gathered about her.

CHAPTER IV

"LONESOME LIZ"

"Oh, galloping grasshoppers!" gasped Bobby Hargrew, clinging tight to
Laura and Nellie Agnew in the dressing-room. "Do you hear what she
says?"

"What language, Bob!" said Nellie, in horror. "How _can_ you?"

"Of whom are you speaking?" asked Laura, with an admonishing look.

"That Lil Pendleton. The gall of her!"

"Stop, Bob!" commanded Laura. "You talk like a street urchin."

"I don't care if I talk like a sea urchin," complained the smaller
girl. "She says she's going with us."

"Where?" asked Nell.

"Camping."

"Who?" exclaimed Laura, promptly.

"That Pendleton girl. Says her mother just told her. _Your_ mother
said so, Laura Belding. So there!"

"Why--why----"

"I don't want to complain of your mother, Laura," said the grocer's
daughter, "but it seems too bad we can't pick and choose whom we'll
have go camping in our crowd."

"Mother doesn't understand! I am sure she never meant to _make_ us
take Lil if we didn't want her."

"And surely we _don't_," declared the doctor's daughter, with more
emphasis than she usually used in commenting upon any subject.

"Let's put the rollers under her and let her zip," exclaimed the
slangy Bobby.

"If Gee