o covered with confusion that I'm about to fall off this
limb."

"Well, here's something mean enough to brace you up," answered Kitty.
"It's about Maud Minor. It's hateful of me to write it, but I happened
to see her going down the terrace steps and it just popped into my head:

"There is a young lady named Maud,
Whose manners are overmuch thawed.
She'll beat an oil-well. When they'd gushed for a spell
_It_ would take a back seat and applaud."

"What's the matter, Kitty?" asked Betty, "I thought you admired her
immensely."

"I did that first week, but it's just as I say. She gushes over me so,
simply because I am Malcolm's cousin. I know very well that I am not the
dearest, cutest, brightest, most beautiful and angelic being in the
universe, and she isn't sincere when she insists that I am. She overdoes
it, and is so dreadfully effusive that I want to run whenever she comes
near me. I wish she wasn't going on the excursion to-morrow."

"She doesn't worry me," said Gay. "I meet her on her own ground and fire
back her own adjectives at her, doubled and twisted. She has let me
alone for some time."

The discussion of Maud led their thoughts away from Gay's Limerick, and
Kitty forgot to ask for it. They sat in silence again, and the
plaintive calling of the dove sounded several times before any one
spoke.

"It's so sweet and peaceful here," said Betty, softly. "It makes me
think of Lloydsboro Valley. I could shut my eyes and almost believe I
was back in the old Seminary orchard."

"I'm glad we're not," said Allison. "For then we'd miss to-morrow's
excursion. And I like having our holiday on Monday instead of Saturday,
as we did there."

"What excursion are you talking about?" asked Gay, lazily swinging her
foot over the limb.

Betty explained. "We're going to see some rare old books and illuminated
manuscripts. Miss Chilton has a friend in Washington who has one of the
finest private collections in the country, and she offered to take any
of the freshman class who cared to go. Ten of us have accepted the
invitation. We're going to the Congressional Library in the morning,
take lunch at some restaurant, and then call on this lady early in the
afternoon. It will be the only chance to see them, as she is going
abroad very soon, and the house will be closed for the winter."

"There are other things in the collection besides books," said Allison
"Some queer old musical in