"for the Barlows won't appreciate it, and
what's more they'll turn everything inside out and upside down before
they've been in the house an hour."

But, notwithstanding her conviction, she made her preparations as
carefully as if for the most fastidious visitors and viewed the result
with great satisfaction after it was finished.

She went down in the carriage to meet the train, delighted at the thought
of seeing again her Barlow cousins, of whom she was really very fond.

"I wish Aunt Grace and Uncle Ted were coming, too," she said to herself;
"but I suppose I couldn't take care of so many people at once. It would
be like running a hotel."

The train had not arrived when they reached the station, so, telling the
coachman to wait, Patty left the carriage and walked up and down the
station platform.

"Hello, Patty, haven't your cousins come yet?"

"Why, Kenneth, is that you? No, they haven't come; I think the train
must be late."

"Yes, it is a little, but there it is now, just coming into sight around
the curve. May I stay and meet them? Or would you rather fall on their
necks alone?"

"Oh, stay, I'd be glad to have you; but you'll have to walk back, there's
no room in the carriage for you."

"Oh, that's all right. I have my wheel, thank you."

The train stopped, and a number of passengers alighted. But as the train
went on and the small crowd dispersed, Patty remarked in a most
exasperated tone:

"Well, they didn't come on that train. I just knew they wouldn't. They
are the most aggravating people! Now, nobody knows whether they were on
that train and didn't know enough to get off, or whether they missed it
at the New York end. What time is the next train?"

"I'm not sure," said Kenneth; "let's go in the station and find out."

The next train was due at 4.30, but the expected guests did not arrive
on that either.

"There's no use in getting annoyed," said Patty, laughing, "for it's
really nothing more nor less than I expected. The Barlows never catch the
train they intend to take."

"And Miss Allen? Is she the same kind of an 'Old Reliable'?"

"No, Nan is different; and I believe that, left to herself, she'd be on
time, though probably not ahead of time. But I've never seen her except
with the Barlows, and when she was down at the Hurly-Burly she was just
about as uncertain as the rest of them."

"Is the Hurly-Burly the Barlow homestead?"

"Well, it's their summer home, and it's really a lovely