on. The whole membership--at
least, the female portion of it--was hostile to the party from Hillcrest.

While the entertainment was proceeding, however, the Bray girls and their
escorts were left in peace. Sairy Pritchett sat where she could stare at
Lyddy and 'Phemie, and they were conscious of her antagonistic gaze all
the time.

But Lucas was quite undisturbed by his sister's ogling and when there came
a break in the program he leaned over and demanded of her in a perfectly
audible voice:

"I say, Sairy! You keep on starin' like that and you'll git suthin' wuss'n
a squint--you'll git cross-eyed, and it'll stay fixed! Anything about _me_
you don't like the look of? Is my necktie crooked?"

Some of the others laughed--and at Sairy. It made the spinster furious.

"You're a perfect fool, Lucas Pritchett!" she snapped. "If you ever _did_
have any brains, you've addled 'em now over certain folks that I might
mention."

"Go it, old gal!" said the slangy Lucas. "Ev'ry knock's a boost--don't
forgit that!"

"Hush!" commanded 'Phemie, in a whisper.

"Huh! that cat's goin' to do somethin' mean. I can see it," growled Lucas.

"She is your sister," admonished 'Phemie.

"That's how I come to know her so well," returned Lucas, calmly. "If she'd
only been a boy I'd licked her aout o' this afore naow!"

"About _what_?" asked the troubled 'Phemie.

"Oh, just over her 'tarnal meanness. And maw's so foolish, too; _she_
could stop her."

"I'm sorry we came here to-night, Lucas," 'Phemie whispered.

And at the same moment Lyddy was saying exactly the same thing to Harris
Colesworth.

"Pshaw!" said the young chemist, in return, "don't give 'em the
satisfaction of seeing we're disturbed. They know no better. I can't
understand why they should be so nasty to us."

"It's Lucas's sister," sighed Lyddy. "She thinks she has reason for being
offended with me. But I _did_ hope that feeling had died out by this time."

"You say the word and we'll get out of here, Miss Lydia," urged Harris.

"Sh! No," she whispered, for somebody was painfully playing a march on
the tin-panny old piano, and Mr. Somers was scowling directly down upon
the Hillcrest party to obtain silence.

"Say! what's the matter with that Somers chap, too?" muttered Harris.

But Lyddy feared that the teacher felt he had cause for offence, and she
certainly _was_ uncomfortable.

The recess--or intermission--between the two halves of the literary and
musical pr