s to each other! Fandy, in his
excitement, handed a couplet to a pretty little girl with yellow hair,
and then seeing her pout as she looked at it, ran over to her again with
a quick "Let me see't. What does it say?" She held out the little bit of
paper without letting it go, and Fandy seizing it at the other end, read
laboriously and in laughing dismay:

"You-are-the-nicest-boy-I-know,
And-this-is-just-to-tell-you-so."

He recovered himself instantly, however, and wagging his handsome little
head at her, exclaimed emphatically:

"Girl, _girl_, don't you see, I meant girl! It's pleposterous to think
I meant boy, cause you ain't one, don't you see. Mottoes is awful
foolish, anyway. Come over in the hall and see the gol'-fishes swimmin'
in the 'quarium,"--and off they ran together, as happy as birds.

Then came a dance--the Lancers. Two thirds of the young company,
including Don and Dorry, attended the village dancing-school; and one
and all "just doted on the Lancers," as Josie Manning said. Uncle
George, knowing this, had surprised the D's by secretly engaging two
players,--for piano-forte and violin,--and their well-marked time and
spirited playing put added life into even the lithe young forms that
flitted through the rooms. Charity looked on in rapt delight, the more
so as kind Sailor Jack already had carried the sleepy and warmly bundled
Isabel home to her mother.

One or two more dances brought this amusement to an end, and then, after
a few moments of rest came a startling and mysterious order to prepare
for the

"THANK-YOU" GAME!

"What in the world is that?" asked the young folk of Don and Dorry; and
their host and hostess candidly admitted that they hadn't the slightest
idea what it was; they never had heard of it before.

"Well, then, how can we play it?" insisted the little spokes-people.

"I don't know," answered Dorry, looking in a puzzled way at the door.

"All join hands and form a circle!" cried a voice.

Every one arose, and soon the circle stood expectant.

"Your dear great-great fairy godmother is coming to see you," continued
the voice. "She is slightly deaf, but you must not mind that."

"Oh, no, no!" cried the laughing circle, "not in the least."

"She brings her white gnome with her," said the invisible speaker; "and
don't let him know your names, or he will get you into trouble."

"No, no, no!" cried the circle, wildly.

A slight