tell my name, 'Mabel
Isabel Allison,' and that I would be three years old in November, but
that I couldn't tell where I lived. Whenever they asked me I cried and
said I didn't know. She wanted to save my clothes for me, thinking that
by them I might some day find my parents, but the matron took them away
from her, all but three little gold baby pins marked 'M.I.A.' She hid
them away from the matron. When she heard I was to go with Miss Brant,
she kissed me, and gave them to me. She was the only person that ever
cared for me."

The tears stood in Grace's eyes.

"You poor, little thing!" she cried. "I care for you, and I'm going to
see if I can do something for you. You shan't stop school if I can help
it. I can't stay with you any longer, just now, because I am going to
Miss Bright's and I am late. It is eight o'clock, you see."

The girl gave a little cry of fright.

"Oh, I didn't think it was so late. I know Miss Brant will be very
angry. She will probably beat me. I am still carrying the marks from the
last whipping she gave me. She sent me out on an errand, but I felt as
though I must be alone, if only for a few minutes. That's why I stopped
in the square."

"Beat you!" exclaimed Grace. "How dare she touch you? Why, I never had a
whipping in my life! I won't keep you another minute, but wait for me
outside the campus when school is out to-morrow. I wish to talk further
with you."

"I'll come," promised Mabel, her face lighting up. Then she suddenly
threw both arms around Grace's neck and said, "I do love you, and I feel
that some one cares about me at last." Then, like a flash, she darted
across the square and was soon lost to Grace's view.

"Well, of all things!" Grace remarked softly to herself. "I think it's
high time we organized a sorority for the purpose of aiding girls in
distress."

"You're a prompt person. Did you really decide to come?" were the cries
that greeted her from the porch as she opened the Bright's gate.

"Save your caustic comments," said Grace as she handed Jessica her hat.
"I have a tale to tell."

"Out with it!" was the cry, and the girls surrounded Grace, who began
with her meeting with David, and ended with the story of Mabel Allison.

"You haven't heard anything of those boys yet, have you?" she asked when
she had finished.

"Not yet," said Nora, "but never fear, the night is yet young."

"Where is Eleanor Savell?" asked Grace, noticing for the first time that
Eleanor was