t of this story is reprinted
from "The Young Idea," now out of print; the
second part has never until now appeared in book
form.

ILLUSTRATIONS

"What's the matter, Margery?" "Nothing.
I'm just waiting." _Frontispiece_

PAGE

"I'm only the hired girl!" 19

"Margery, do you see him? The bees are after him!" 30

A LITTLE QUESTION IN LADIES' RIGHTS

PART ONE

MARGERY was sitting under the cherry tree with a certain air of
expectancy. She seemed to be waiting for something or some one. Willie
Jones's head popped over the back fence and Willie Jones himself, a tin
pail in one hand, dropped into the Blair yard and made for the cherry
tree. But Margery still gazed earnestly, tensely, into nothing. Willie
Jones, evidently, was not the object of her thoughts.

"What's the matter, Margery?"

"Nothing. I'm just waiting."

"What for?"

There was no reason for telling Willie Jones, but, by the same token,
there was no reason for not telling him. So Margery answered frankly:

"I et a whole bagful of bananas and now Effie says I'm going to be sick
and thr'up. So I'm just waiting."

"Whew! How many was they, Margery?"

"I don't know, but a good many."

"Think you might have shared with a fella."

"Well, you see, Willie, I didn't know anything about them. None of us
did. I thought I smelled something good in the pantry, and when Effie
went upstairs I sneaked in to see. Sure enough, there was a bag of
bananas, real soft and sweet, don't you know. I et one and then I et
another and, before I knew it, they were all gone. Then Effie caught me
as I was coming out."

"Will she tell on you?"

"No, I don't think she'll tell on me. But she says I'm going to be awful
sick. I was once before. So I'm just waiting."

"Aw, you're not going to be sick, Margery. That's only Effie's bluff.
Listen: I'm going out blackberrying. There are just dead loads of great
big ripe ones on the graveyard patch. My mother'll give me ten cents if
I bring her back two quarts."

Margery looked at the tin pail longingly. She, too, would go
blackberrying, but she realized that home was the best place for sick
folk.

"Aw, come on," Willie urged. "You're not going to be sick. I bet
anything you're not."

Confidence begets confidence, and, looking at Willie Jones's tin pail,
Margery began to wonde