gnize me?"

Although used to the nonsense of the children, Sarah couldn't entirely
repress a giggle as Kitty glared at her.

"Eat your dinner, Miss Kitty," she said, "an' don't be afther teasin'
me."

"Safe!" exclaimed Kitty. "She knows me not! 'Kitty' she calls me! Ha!"

The play went on all through the meal, for the Maynards never tired of
this sort of fun.

"I'm going out for a few minutes," said King, as they at last rose from
the table. "Father said I might go down to Goodwin's to get slides for
my camera. I won't be gone long."

"All right," said Marjorie, "I'm going to study my spelling. What are
you going to do, Kit?"

"I'm going up to the playroom. Nannie is going to tell me stories while
she sews."

So Marjorie was alone in the living-room as she took up her school-bag
to get her spelling-book from it. To her dismay it was not there! The
book which she had mistakenly brought for her speller was her mental
arithmetic; they were much the same size, and she often mistook one for
the other.

But this time it was a serious matter. The spelling-match was to be the
next day, and how could she review her lessons without her book?

Her energetic mind began to plan what she could do in the matter.

It was already after seven o'clock, quite too late to go to the
schoolhouse after the missing book. If King had been at home she would
have consulted him, but she had no one of whom to ask advice.

She remembered what her father had said about getting up early the next
morning, and she wondered if she couldn't get up even earlier still, and
go to the schoolhouse for the book before breakfast. She could get the
key from the janitor, who lived not far from her own home.

It seemed a fairly feasible plan, and, though she would lose her
evening's study, she determined to go to bed early, and rise at daybreak
to go for the book.

"I'll write a note to mother," she thought, "telling her all about it,
and I'll leave it on her dressing-table. Then, when she hears me
prowling out at six o'clock to-morrow morning, she'll know what I'm up
to."

The notion of an early morning adventure was rather attractive, but
suddenly Marjorie thought that she might not be able to get the key from
the janitor so early as that.

"Perhaps Mr. Cobb doesn't get up until seven or later, and I can't wait
till then," she pondered. "I've a good notion to go for that key
to-night. Then I can go to the schoolhouse as early as I choose in th