ill be like, and just when it
will be," Princess Polly said, her hands tightly clasped and her eyes
bright with excitement.

"It's a lovely place to stay in, even if there wasn't a single thing
planned for amusement, but when you know there'll be ever so many good
times happening during the Summer, it makes us wild to start for
Cliffmore."

The sound of footsteps running made them turn, just as Gwen Harcourt
came racing toward them.

She was a little neighbor, so bold, so regardless of the feelings of
others, so apt to tell outrageous stories, that Polly and Rose were
not fond of her. She never stopped to question if she were welcome,
but entered any house where the door stood open, and at once made
herself quite at home, always remaining until she chose to go.

She was evidently quite excited. Her short, curling hair blew about
her face, and her cheeks were red.

"What do you think?" she cried. "I've just come from that big house
over there, where the people have just moved in. I couldn't tell if
I'd like to know them, unless I went when I could see them, so this
morning I went right up to the door, and as it wasn't locked, I opened
it, and went in."

"Why, Gwen Harcourt!" Rose exclaimed.

"Well, what?" Gwen said pertly.

"S'pose I was going to wait and wonder what those people were like? I
guess not. I went right straight in and looked at them, so now I know.

"The lady isn't much to look at, and she wasn't dressed up the least
bit, and the baby that the nursemaid was holding was awful homely.

"Its face was red, and its hair was sort of straight and stringy, and
when it cried, and that was most all the time I was there, it made a
perfectly horrid face.

"There's a boy there, too, and I didn't like him very well," she
continued. "He talked to me some, but he wants to do all the talking,
and I don't like that. I want to talk most of the time, myself."

Polly and Rose managed not to laugh.

"Perhaps if you had been willing to listen, and let him talk more, you
might have liked him better," Polly said.

"No, I wouldn't!" Gwen said, stoutly, "for what little he did say made
me mad. Think how rude he was! When I told him my whole _truly_ name
was Gwendolen Armitage Harcourt, he just said:

"'H'm! Is that so? Well, my name is Jona Jonathan Ebenezer Montgomery,
and that beats your name all hollow.' The lady laughed, but she said:
'Don't tease the little girl. That is not your name at all. Why not
tell her