gnificent cake that you ever saw, and a freezer of
delicious ice-cream!"

Bea dropped the lamp-top from her trembling fingers, and turned her face
with incredulous relief and delight.

"Oh, Kittie!"

"Yes, and I'm going right out now to distribute plates and napkins, and
let them eat out in the moonlight; it's nearly as light as day, so don't
worry another bit; the other big lamp will burn over two hours, yet, and
you can empty enough from the little ones into this to make it go, and
everybody but Dr. Barnett thinks it was bugs. Only hurry and come out;"
and away fluttered Kittie, with the memory of Bea's brightened face, to
provide the young guests with plates and expectations.

So, when Bea replaced the lamp in the parlor, with its blaze high and
bright, and came out on to the porch, she found the merriest party
imaginable, and there were generous saucers of cream going round amid
"Oh's," and "Ah's" of satisfaction, and Kat following after them with an
immense cake, its top shining white as snow in the moonlight. Bea knew
only too well who was the author of all this generosity, and she seized
the first opportunity of giving Ralph's hand a squeeze of inexpressible
gratitude, to which he made answer by giving her a fraternal pat on the
shoulder, as they stood in the shadow of the vine, and whispered slyly:

"Barnett's a trump, isn't he? I never saw anything neater."

Bea thought so and was treasuring up a little speech of thanks to make
him when the good-night moment should arrive, but she didn't make it,
for that moment turned out to be something so different from what she
expected. It was this way. After having reduced the cake and lemonade to
a state of bankruptcy, and made way with all the ice-cream, the young
people strolled around the yard for a while in the moonlight, took rides
in the Water-Rat across the pond, and then decided that it was time to
go home, and began making their parting thanks accordingly; so that in a
few moments every one was gone but Dr. Barnett and his sister; and that
sister, with feminine quickness, understood that this moment might be
the very one her brother wanted, so she engaged Kittie and Kat in a
lively conversation, and together they all went up stairs for her
wrappings.

"It was so kind in you," began Bea when she found that they were quite
alone on the porch. "I don't know what I should have done, and it was so
terribly mortifying, but then--" and there she came to a pause,