o! A-a-lf!" The young
ladies of Algonquin, had lived in such close proximity to each other
from childhood that a playmate could always be summoned even from the
other end of the town by a clarion call, and they had never seen any
reason for changing their convenient method when long skirts and
piled-up hair might have been supposed to demand a less artless manner.
But then every one shouted across blocks, and besides, every one knew
that Afternoon Tea Willie just dearly loved to be yelled at. He
whirled about now, waved his hat, and came hurrying back, with the
peculiar jerky irregular motion of his feet, that always marked his
movements.

"Hurrah, Leslie!" called her companions again.

"Coming!" she cried. "So sorry you can't come," she added, turning to
Roderick, "but we'll give you another invitation." She looked
disappointed, and a little inclined to pout, but she waved her hand as
she ran down the steps and joined the group of lace and flowers now
fluttering down the side-walk towards the ice cream parlour.

"Leslie's made a new conquest," cried a tall girl with flashing black
eyes. "He seemed frantically anxious to come with you, my dear. I
don't see how you got rid of him."

"Who is he, Les?" cried another. "If it's a new young man come to this
girl-ridden town you simply have got to pass him round and introduce
him."

"Why, he's Lawyer Ed's new partner, you goosie," cried a dozen voices,
for it was inexcusable for any young lady not to know all about Lawyer
Ed's business.

"A lawyer, how perfectly lovely!" cried a plump little girl with pink
cheeks and dancing eyes. "It's such a relief to see some one beside
bank boys. I'm going to ask his advice about suing Afternoon Tea
Willie for breach of promise. What's his name, Leslie?"

"Why, his name's Roderick McRae," cried the young lady with the black
eyes. "I remember when he used to go to school in a grey homespun suit
with the hay sticking all over it. He's the son of old Angus McRae who
used to bring our cabbage and lettuce to the back door!"

"Mercy!" the plump little girl gave a shriek. "Where in the world did
you pick him up, Leslie?"

The girl whirled about and faced her companions, her eyes blazing, her
checks red. "I didn't pick him up at all!" she cried hotly. "He
picked me up the other night, out of the lake over by Breezy Point,
where Fred Hamilton upset me out of his canoe. And if Roderick McRae
hadn't come along I'd have be