asked Edward Watkins about it the first
time they saw him except that their Aunt Louise guessed their plan and
forestalled it by telling them that any mention of the matter would be
an intrusion upon other people's affairs which would be wholly
unwarranted.

The first time they saw Edward was the next day, when the Rosemont
Charitable Society gave a bazaar for the benefit of its treasury,
depleted by the demands upon it of an uncommonly hard winter. The seats
were all taken out of the high school hall and the big room became the
scene of a Donnybrook Fair on St. Patrick's Day. Of course the U. S. C.
had been called on to help; it had made a name for itself and outsiders
looked to it for ideas and assistance.

In fact, the idea of the fair was Ethel Brown's. She heard her mother
talking with one of the Directors of the R. C. S. one afternoon about
the unending need for money and suggested the Irish program as a
possible means of making some.

"The child is right," fat Mrs. Anderson promptly agreed. "Rosemont never
had anything of the sort."

"It wouldn't be harder to get up than any other kind of fair," said Mrs.
Morton.

"And St. Patrick's Day will be here so soon that it's a good excuse for
hurrying it."

So it had been hurried, and the day after the strange encounter with Mr.
Clark and the disturbing conversation with Miss Merriam the scholastic
American precincts of the high school were converted into an Irish fair
ground. Every one who had anything to do with the tables or the conduct
of the bazaar was dressed in an Irish peasant costume, the girls with
short, full skirts with plain white shirt waists showing beneath a
sleeveless jacket of dark cloth. Heavy low shoes and thick stockings
would have been the appropriate wear for the feet, but all the girls
rebelled.

"This footgear was meant for the earth floor of a cabin and not for a
steam-heated room," declared Helen. "I'll wear green stockings, but thin
ones, and my own slippers, even if they aren't suitable."

The boys were less inconvenienced by their garb, which included, to be
sure, heavy shoes and long stockings, but also tight knee breeches and,
instead of jackets, waistcoats with sleeves.

Every one in Rosemont who had any green furnishings lent them for the
occasion. Mrs. Anderson robbed her library of a huge green rug to place
before the stationery booth over whose writing paper and green
place-cards and novelties, all in green boxes, she pres