rd one. Mr. Dunlee had his
alpenstock, and Uncle James walked beside him, holding little Eddo by
the hand. Bab and Lucy, or "the little two," as Aunt Vi called them,
were side by side as usual, and Lucy had asked Bab to repeat the story
of "Little Bo-Peep" in French, for Nate wanted to hear it. Bab could
speak French remarkably well.

"Petit beau bouton
A perde ses moutons,
Il ne sais pas que les a pris.
O laissez les tranquille!
Ils se retournerons,
Chacun sa queue apres lui."

Mrs. Dunlee and Kyzie were just behind the children, and while Bab was
repeating the verse Kyzie said in a low tone:--

"Oh, mamma, let me walk with you all the way, please. There's something
I want to talk about."

She looked so earnest that Mrs. Dunlee wondered not a little what it was
her eldest daughter had to say.

V

THE AIR-CASTLE

"A vacation school, Katharine? And pray what may that be?"

Kyzie's cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining. She held her mother's
hand and talked fast, though plainly she did not feel quite at her ease.

"Why, mamma, you've certainly heard of vacation schools--summer schools?
They're very common nowadays. In the summer, you know; so that college
people can go to them, and business people."

"Ah! Like the one at Coronado Beach? Now I understand. But it didn't
occur to me that my little daughter would know enough to teach college
people!"

"Now, mamma, don't laugh at me! Of course I mean children, the little
ignorant children right around here," making a sweeping gesture toward
the cottages and "bunk houses" that dotted the country lower down the
mountain, "I know enough to teach little children, I should hope,
mamma."

"Possibly!"

Mrs. Dunlee's tone was so doubtful that her daughter felt crushed.

"Possibly you may know enough about books; but book-knowledge is not all
that is required in a teacher. Could you keep the children in order?
Would they obey you?"

The little girl's head drooped a little.

"Let me see, you are only fourteen?"

"Fourteen last April, mamma. But everybody says, don't you know, that
I'm very large for my age."

She tried to speak bravely, but the look of quiet amusement on her
listener's face made it rather hard for her to go on.

"I suppose," said she, dropping her eyes again, "I suppose they don't
know much here, mamma,--the families that live here all the time. Some
of the boys actually go barefooted."

"So I have obser