out the making my
candy, how it disappeared, and what you did to recover it. Then, when
you have finished, we will take a vote and see how many of us believe in
fairies."

For a moment Ruth hesitated, but Winifred's friendly smile encouraged
her and she stood up. She did not look at the group of girls sitting
about under the trees; she looked straight over their heads at the
river, and began to speak, beginning her story with the discovery that
the candy had disappeared. She spoke clearly, and when she finished by
saying that she was sorry that she had been rude to Winifred, because
she and Winifred both rather believed in fairies, there was a little
murmur of approval.

"Now, girls, all those who believe in fairies stand up," said Betty,
jumping to her feet, and reaching out a hand to the girls beside her,
and at the same time beginning to sing:

"'Here are fields of smiling flowers--
Come and seek May in her bowers.
Catch young May.
Make her stay;
Dance around her bright and gay.'"

Nearly all the girls knew the song and joined in singing, as hand in
hand they ran across the smooth grass toward the May-pole, where Mrs.
Hastings stood waiting for them. And now Ruth was her happy, smiling
self again, and Annette was no longer eager to teach "lessons" to the
younger girls. Annette and Ruth were both conscious, however, that
Betty, with her frank kindness, had smoothed out their mistakes.

CHAPTER XVII

QUEEN BETTY

The girls had exchanged their wreaths of flowers as they sat down to
luncheon, all excepting Ruth and Annette, who wore the ones they had
made themselves, and they now made a very attractive picture as they all
formed a ring around the May-pole, singing an old song that their
mothers had sung when they too were little girls; a May-pole song that
had been sung in England for hundreds of years.

"'Round the May-pole, trit, trit, trot.
See what a garland we have got:
Fine and gay,
Trip away.
Happy is our New May Day.'"

"Now for choosing the May Queen!" said Mary Pierce, and a little chorus
of "Betty Hastings! Betty Hastings!" was the response, and Betty
curtsied very low, and thanked her guests. For "Maids of Honor" she
chose Ruth and Winifred, whose duties were to walk one on each side of
the May Queen on her way to her throne, and then kneel beside her until
she bade them rise.

While the girls had been at luncheon and dancing around the May-pole
Black