overed, startled her with its reality.

"Billie Ellis," she exclaimed, springing to her feet and scattering
reference books and note paper helter-skelter. "How on earth did you ever
get way out here?"

Billie shook hands with her, coloring boyishly, as he always did at any
display of emotion, and trying to act as if it were the most natural and
ordinary thing in the world for him to appear at Delphi, Wis., when he was
supposed to be at Washington in school.

"We got our test exams last week, and Stanley had to run out to Minnesota
for the government, so he took me along to help him."

"Billie, are you really after bugs and things--I mean, are you going to
really be a naturalist?"

"I guess you'd kind of call it being a business naturalist," laughed
Billie. "I don't think I'll ever live in a shack on a mountainside, and
write beautiful things about them, now that I know Stanley. You want to
roll up your sleeves and go to work like he does."

"Is he here, now?" asked Kit, eagerly.

"Yep." Billie nodded oat of the window, towards Kemp Hall, the boys'
dormitory. "After we found out that you didn't live here, we were going on
down to the Dean's to find you, but he looked over the boys' freshman
class, and found he had a cousin or nephew or somebody on the list,
Clayton Diggs."

"I know him," Kit exclaimed. "He's High Jinks' cousin. Regular bean pole,
with freckles, but mighty nice. I've got to be back for lunch, and you're
coming down with me, of course. How long can you stay?"

"Just this afternoon. We're going back on the five forty-five, and catch
the night express east. If you wait here, I'll chase after Stanley, 'cause
he'll want to have lunch with the Diggs boy, and he can join us later."

Kit walked along the macadamized path which crossed the campus. It was
bordered by dwarf evergreen, but the students had named it Hope's primrose
path, owing to the temptation to dally along it, whenever one had the
chance.

The coming of Billie unexpectedly, just at a time when she was feeling her
first homesickness, struck Kit as being a special little gift handed out
to her by Providence. But with only five hours to visit with him, she knew
it would be all the harder after he had gone. He joined her on a run as
she reached the sidewalk, and they hurried down to the Dean's just in time
for luncheon. Kit's face was fairly radiant as she presented her old-time
chum of the hills to Miss Daphne and the Dean.

"Don't you r