ollie. "Aren't you
just dying to go, Amy?"

"I am--yes." There was hesitation in the tones.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Grace, quickly. "Are you ill, Amy?" for
the girl looked pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

"No, I'm all right. But papa and mamma don't seem to want me to go--at
least they say they rather I would not just at present."

"The idea!"

"After we have it almost all arranged!"

"Why not?"

These comments and the question were fairly shot at Amy.

"I--I don't know," she faltered. "At first they did not seem to mind--but
last night--oh, I dare say it will, be all right, girls. Don't mind me,"
and Amy tried to smile, though it could easily be seen that it cost her
an effort.

She did not want to tell that she had overheard her parents discussing
something the night before that troubled her--a topic that had been
hushed when she unexpectedly came into the room. And that it had to do
with the proposed little trip Amy was sure. Yet Mr. and Mrs. Stonington
had at first shown much interest in it, and had written to various
relatives asking them to entertain the girls.

"Stuck up things!" murmured Alice Jallow, toward the close of the noon
recess, when the four chums had kept to one corner of the school court,
eating their lunches, and never joining in the activities, or talk, of
the other pupils.

"I wonder what they can be planning?" murmured Alice. "If they're
getting up a new society, we'll do the same, and we won't ask them to
join."

"Indeed we won't," agreed her chum. "That Betty Nelson thinks she can
run the school. I'll show her that she can't!"

"And if they knew what I know about Amy Stonington I don't believe they'd
be so thick with her."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a secret."

"Oh, tell me, Alice," pleaded Kittie. "You know I won't ever
tell--honest!"

"Promise?"

"Promise!"

"Well then--oh, come over here. There's that horrid Sadie Jones trying to
hear what we're saying," and the two girls, arm in arm, strolled off to a
distant part of the court.

The afternoon session wore on. The day grew warmer, the sky became
overcast, and there was the dull muttering of distant thunder. There
seemed a tension in the air--as if something was going to snap. Doubtless
you have often felt it--a sensation as though pins and needles were
pricking you all over. As though you wanted to scream--to cry
out--against an uncertain sensation that gripped you.

In the various