"I heard him telling father he was leaving this fall with one of the
engineering units from Virginia on reconstruction work in the forests.
Why, Kit?"

"Nothing," answered Kit, shortly. "Take off that golden crown and get to
bed. It's after midnight. You'll probably dream of being a grand-opera
queen, and wake up in the morning hearing Doris calling the guinea hens."

Two days later the Ormonds left. The little camp over on the island had
broken up the day before. Billie had gone up to his grandfather's to spend
a few days before returning to school, but Stanley remained over at
Greenacres as Mr. Robbins' guest.

With a steady income assured him by the Dean's gift, Mr. Robbins was
planning to develop the farm along the intensive lines he had always
longed for. The girls on their side were fairly gloating over their own
harvesting from the summer labors. Sally had made her own profit out of
the little store, and the tent colony had yielded dividends sufficient to
give each of the older girls a golden nest egg. Most of Jean's was going
into her trousseau, but Kit took hers on the quiet and dropped it into her
mother's lap as Mrs. Robbins sat reading in her favorite chair on the
veranda.

"But, Kit, I don't need it now, dear," protested her mother. "Why don't
you buy yourself some things that you've been wanting? I don't mean useful
things. I mean 'white hyacinths' to feed the soul."

Kit sat down on the top step, hugging her knees and rocking to and fro
contentedly.

"You know I can't think of a single 'white hyacinth' that I'm hungering
for," she said. "I suppose I've got to go back to high school next week,
and I don't want to very much at all. I can't bear general educations,
mother darling. I wish there was a school I could go into and only study
what I love best. Mountain climbing, island hunting and forestry. I want
to be an explorer."

"There is such a school," her mother smiled down at her, "presided over
by old dean experience, and you go to it all your life."

"But I mean something tangible," Kit explained. "It seems such a terrible
waste of time just going to high school, and just filling up on a lot of
things you're not particularly interested in." Mrs. Robbins looked down at
the eager, troubled face, and there was a note of understanding sympathy
in her voice, as she said:

"You're my only restless spirit, Kit, always reaching out after the
mighty, real things of life, where Jean and Helen follow