th a
tiled wall all about it, was a delightful housetop or uncovered porch,
so situated among the trees that it was entirely shut in from the
world.

It was perfect! They stood and looked at one another in delight, and
for the time the college was forgotten. Then Allison dashed away, and
came back eagerly almost immediately.

"There's a garage!" he said, "just behind the kitchen, a regular
robin's nest of a one, white with pink tiles just like the house, and
a pebbled drive. Say, it must be some fool of a guy that would sell
this. Isn't it just a crackerjack?"

"My dear," put in Julia Cloud, "it can't help being very expensive----"

"Now, Cloudy, remember!" said Leslie, holding up her finger in mock
rebuke. "Just wait and see! And, anyhow, you don't know Guardy Lud. If
he could see us located in a peach of a home like this, he'd go back
to his growley old dear of a wife with happy tears rolling down his
nice old cheeks. Allison, you go talk to that agent, and you give him
a hundred dollars if you've got it left--here, I guess I've got some,
too--just to bind the bargain till Guardy gets here. And say, you go
see if you can't get Guardy on the 'phone. I don't want to go a step
farther. Couldn't you be happy here, Cloudy, with that fireplace, and
that prayer meeting to go to? I wouldn't mind going with you sometimes
when I didn't have to study."

Julia Cloud stooped, and kissed the eager face, and whispered, "Very
happy, darling!"

And then they went to the agent again and the telephone.

"Guardy Lud" proved himself quite equal to the occasion by agreeing to
come on at once and approve their choice, and promised to be there
before evening.

"I knew he would," said Leslie happily, as they seated themselves in
the car again for the pleasant run to the college.

They found the dean in his office, and Allison was taken with him at
once.

"He isn't much like that musty little guy in the other college. He
looked like a wet hen!" growled Allison in a low tone to his
sister and aunt, while the dean was out in the hall talking to a
student. "I like him, don't you?" and Julia Cloud sat wondering
what the boy's standards could be that he could judge so suddenly
and enthusiastically. Yet she had to admit herself that she liked
this man, tall and grave with a pleasant twinkle hidden away in his
wine-brown eyes and around the corners of his firm mouth. She felt
satisfied that here was a man who would be both wise and just