retorted Hippy, with dignity. "I'm standing perfectly
still. However, I did not come away out here in this field to quarrel
with you, David Nesbit. I came because I am a--"

"Nuisance," suggested Reddy.

"Precisely. No, I don't mean anything of the sort. I am not a nuisance.
A nuisance is a tall, thin, conceited person with flaming red hair, pale
blue eyes, a freckled nose and a slanderous tongue. His name begins with
R and he is--"

Without finishing his sentence Hippy took to his heels and disappeared
around the corner of the Omnibus House, with an agility worthy of a
better cause.

"I'll see that he keeps at a safe distance from us till we start for
Grace's," was Reddy's grim comment. "You'll see his head appear at that
corner in a minute, and then, look out!"

They waited in mirthful silence. True to Reddy's prediction Hippy's
round face was suddenly thrust into view. Reddy leaped toward him. There
was a horrified, "Oh, dreadful!" from Hippy, and the sound of running
feet.

"He's afraid of me," boasted Reddy in a purposely loud tone.

"Don't you ever believe it," contradicted Hippy's voice. "I like the
view from this side of the Omnibus House. I think Nora would like it,
too."

"Such thoughtfulness is rare," jeered David.

"'Tis better to have thought such thoughts, than never to have thought
at all," retorted the voice plaintively.

"Let's eradicate him from the face of the earth, Reddy," proposed David.
"He's a blot upon the community."

"No-r-a," wailed the voice, "aren't you going to help your little
friend!"

"Rescue him, Nora," declared David disgustedly. "That's the reason he
created all this disturbance."

Nora dimpled, the pink in her cheeks deepening.

"Yes, do," urged Grace. "It is high time for us to start home. We must
be there to receive Mrs. Gray."

"She sent me on ahead," informed Tom. "I wanted to wait and bring her
over in my car, but she is going to have Haynes bring her over in the
carriage."

Nora disappeared around the corner of the house, but reappeared
immediately, leading by the hand a broadly smiling Hippy, who carried a
huge bouquet of buttercups and daisies in his free hand and cavorted at
her side as joyously as the proverbial lambkin on the green.

"You can lead the way with him, Nora," directed David. "I wouldn't trust
him to bring up the rear. Reddy and I want him where we can keep an eye
upon him."

"Certainly we shall lead the way," flung back Hippy, "but no