ndma sent out for nuts, cider, apples and cakes, which feast ended
the entertainment, though it is safe to say it lasted more than an
hour. At the last, the girls all crowded around Edna to kiss her
good-night and to make their farewells, and then, like a flock of birds,
they all took flight, scurrying home by the light of their lanterns,
some across the street, some down, some up.

As the sound of the last merry voice died away, Edna threw herself into
her grandmother's arms. "Oh, grandma," she cried, "wasn't it a lovely
surprise? Did you know about it?"

"Not so very long before. Reliance came and told me what the girls
wanted to do, and I promised to help in any way that I could."

"And was that why you sent me up for the glasses? I didn't tell you
after all that I couldn't find them."

"I didn't expect you to," said her grandmother, laughing. "I only told
you to go see if you could find them so as to get you out of the way
and keep you occupied long enough to allow the girls to come in."

"I didn't hear the front door shut."

"No, for they came around by way of the side door, and tip-toed in by
way of the dining-room."

"Well, it was lovely," sighed Edna in full content.

Although the real farewells had been said on that evening, that was not
quite the last of it, for the girls were gathered in a body by the
church the next morning when Edna drove by on her way to the train. She
was squeezed in the back seat of the carriage between her mother and her
Aunt Alice. Ben was on the front seat with his grandfather. Reliance at
the gate was waving a tearful farewell, a white kitten under one arm and
a grey one under the other. Grandma herself stood in the doorway.
"Good-by! Good-by!" sounded fainter and fainter from Reliance, but the
word was taken up by the girls who shouted a perfect chorus of good-bys
as the black horses trotted nimbly along and bore Edna out of sight.

CHAPTER XII

HOW ARE YOU?

In what seemed an incredibly short time, Edna was getting out at the
station nearest her own home. Ben and his mother had parted from them an
hour before and were now on their way to their own home. Ben, however,
would return on Monday to take up his college work again.

"There they are!" were the first words Edna heard as she and her mother
descended from the train. And then the boys rushed forward to hug and
kiss both herself and her mother and to make as much fuss over them as
if they had been gone a ye