Massa Neil, drink yo' cider an' thank de Lawd fo' yo' mercies."

"Good-night, Mammy. You're all right even if I do feel like smacking
your head off once in a while. Used to do it when I was a kid, you know,
and can't drop the habit."

The following morning the party of four set off for Washington, Polly
sorely divided in her mind regarding her own wishes. To have Peggy
elsewhere than at Severndale was a possibility which had never entered
into her calculations. How would it seem to have no Severndale to run
out to? No Peggy to pop into Middie's Haven? No boon companion to ride,
walk, drive, skate with, or lead the old life which they had both so
loved? Polly did some serious thinking on the way to the big city, and
wore such a sober face as they drew near the end of their journey that
Captain Stewart asked, as he tweaked a stray lock which had escaped
bonds:

"What's going on inside this red pate? You look as solemn as an
ostracized owl."

"I'm trying to think how it is going to seem without Peggy this winter
and I don't like the picture even a little bit," and Polly wagged the
"red pate" dubiously.

"Better make up your mind to come along with your running-mate. By Jove,
that's a brain throb, Peggy! How about it? Can't you persuade this girl
of ours to give up the co-ed plan back yonder in Annapolis,--she knows
all the seamanship and nav. that's good for her already,--and you'll
need a room-mate up here at Columbia Heights School if we settle upon
it," and Captain Stewart looked at Polly half longingly, half teasingly.
Polly had grown very dear to the bluff, sincere man during her
companionship with Peggy, and had crept into a corner of his heart he
had never felt it possible for anyone but Peggy herself to fill.
Somehow, latterly when thinking and planning for Peggy's well-being or
pleasure, visions of Polly's tawny head invariably rose before him, and
Polly's happy, sunny face was always beside the one he loved best of
all. The two young girls had become inseparable in his thoughts as well
as in reality.

"Oh, Polly, will you? Will you?" begged Peggy, instantly fired with the
wildest desire to have Polly enter the school which it had been decided
she should enter if at closer inspection it proved to be all the
catalogues, letters and dozens of pamphlets sent to Mrs. Harold
represented it to be.

"If I go to the Columbia Heights School what will Ralph say? And all
the others, too? They'll say I've backed do