no one to cheer the boys on in their good work,"
said the housekeeper, sadly, as they were all standing out on the porch.

"I'll do it," cried Dorothy, and before the echo of her words had died
away rousing cheers broke from her lips, that were answered back
heartily by the crowd assembled with an enthusiastic "Hip, hip, hurrah,
and a tiger!" for the young lady of Gray Gables.

Kendal was mortally angry, and his face grew dark. He strode up to her
and grasped her shoulder, his fingers unwittingly clinching deeply into
the soft flesh.

"For Heaven's sake, stop, you tom-boy!" he cried. "Stop disgracing me!"

She flung up her little head proudly. If he had spoken to her alone she
would not have cared, but before all these people! Oh, it was
unbearable. She would resent it if it killed her.

CHAPTER IX.

For an instant their eyes met--his blazing dark and stormy in the clear,
bright moonlight, and his face white and wrathy; even his hands were
clinched fiercely.

All in an instant the old fire and pride blazed up in Dorothy Glenn's
heart.

"You shall not coerce me as if I were your very slave!" she said,
smiting her little hands together and pushing him from her, forgetting
in her great anger whether or not her action accorded well with her
dignity. "They cheered me, and I shall respond!" and before he could
utter one word of protest she had sped like a swallow down the graveled
path and out through the great arched gateway into the very midst of the
throng of merry maidens and young men who were gathered with hilarious
glee around the roaring bonfire.

The great stacks of burning barrels and boxes sent forth a glare of red
light and columns of flame shooting skyward, lighting up the scene with
a grand, weird beauty that lent a splendor to the night.

Great sparks flew heavenward, and the crackling sounds mingled with the
rousing cheers that rent the air.

They all saw Dorothy, the village favorite, flying toward them, and the
great throng parted to make way for her. Then the sport of the evening
went on with renewed vigor.

"Pile on the barrels!" cried one enthusiastic fellow. "Whether the
election is going Democratic or Republican, let's all give three cheers
for the incoming governor!" and a loud huzza that made the old town ring
broke from a couple of hundred throats, but mingled with it sounded a
wild cry of mortal terror in Dorothy's agonizing voice.

"Oh, my God! my eyes--my eyes! the sparks--