a sight?" and the
young man chuckled at the thought of Nat in the overalls and jumper.

"And those two girls are going to Glenwood--the boarding school I
attend!" and Viola's lip curled in hauteur.

"The dickens they are! I--beg your pardon, but I was so surprised,"
said Tom.

"I don't blame you. I was equally surprised myself. In fact, I guess
everyone was--they made up their minds so suddenly. I suppose--" Then
Viola stopped.

"Well, what do you suppose?"

"Perhaps I shouldn't say it--"

"Why not? Can't you trust me?"

"Oh, it wasn't that. But it might seem unkind."

"Nonsense," and the young man gave Viola a reassuring look. "A thing
said in good faith is never unkind."

"I'm so glad you feel that way. Alice is so different, and I have been
just dying to talk to somebody--somebody who would look at things as I
do. Sometimes I am almost homesick."

"I suppose you are," said the youth, falling a victim to the girl's
coquetry as readily as water runs down hill. "A fellow is never that
way--homesick, I mean; but for a girl--"

"Oh, yes," sighed Viola, "this visiting is not all it is supposed to
be. Alice is a lovely girl, of course, but--"

"A trifle high flown," said Tom, trying to help the faltering girl with
her criticism.

"And so strangely fascinated with that Dorothy." Viola toyed evasively
with the stick of her parasol. "Of course she is a pretty girl--"

"Too yellow--I mean too blondy," said Tom, feeling obliged to say
something against Dorothy.

"Do you know her cousin, Nat White?"

"Not very well, I only met him the other night. But he seems like a
decent fellow."

"I cannot imagine any boy allowing two girls to get in such a
predicament," said Viola, "feeling her way" to further criticism.

"It was rough, but then you see he was not with them, he had gone to
the blacksmith shop to get something fixed, I believe."

"Oh, they were alone!" and Viola had gained one point. "Was it really
melons, do you suppose?"

"So he said, but he seemed to take the whole thing as a joke. Ginger!
It was funny to go out in a red flyer and come back in a Black Maria,"
and Tom laughed at his own attempt at a pun.

"Then, when the cousin came back the girls were in the police patrol?
That accounts for it. I could not possibly see how any young fellow
could allow girls to get into such a scrape," persisted Viola.

"Yes," said Tom vaguely, not being at all particular as to what was the
na