erica' as a signal
that it's time to go."

"What makes you so quiet?" asked Betty, a little later, as they slowly
undressed. She had chattered along, commenting on the events of the
evening, ever since they came to their room, but Lloyd had seemed
remarkably unresponsive.

"Oh, nothing," yawned Lloyd. "I was just thinking of that fairy-tale of
the three weavers. I'll turn out the light."

As she reached up to press the electric button, she thought again, for
the twentieth time, "I wonder what it was that Malcolm told Maud Minor."
Then she nestled down among the pillows, saying, sleepily, to herself:
"Anyway, I'm mighty glad that I nevah gave him that curl he begged
for."

CHAPTER III.

AN EXCURSION

IT was a Sabbath afternoon in October, sunny and still, with a purple
haze resting on the distant woodlands across the river. A warm odour of
ripe apples floated across the old peach orchard, for a few rare
pippin-trees stood in its midst, flaunting the last of their fruitage
from gnarled limbs, or hiding it in the sear grass underneath.

Here and there groups of bareheaded girls wandered in the sun-flecked
shade, exchanging confidences and stooping now and then to pounce
joyfully upon some apple that had hitherto evaded discovery. Betty, who
had been reading aloud for nearly an hour to a little group under one of
the largest trees, closed her book with a yawn. Lloyd and Kitty leaned
lazily back against the mossy trunk, and Allison, with her arms around
her knees, gazed dreamily across the river. The only one who did not
seem to have fallen under the drowsy spell of the Indian summer
afternoon was Gay. Up in the tree above them, she lay stretched out
along a limb, peering down through the leaves like a saucy squirrel.

"What a Sleepy Hollow tale that was!" she exclaimed. "It just suits the
day, but it has hypnotized all of you. Do wake up and be sociable."

She began breaking off bits of twigs and dropping them down on the heads
below. One struck Lloyd's ear, and she brushed it off impatiently,
thinking it was a bug. Gay laughed and began teasingly:

"There was a young maiden named Lloyd,
Whom reptiles always annoyed.
An innocent worm would cause her to squirm,
And cloyed--toyed--employed--

I'm stuck, Betty. Come to the rescue with a rhyme."

"So with germicide she's overjoyed," supplied Betty, promptly.

"That's all right," said Kitty, waking up. "Let's ea