Nan, and though she liked Bumble very much indeed, she took more real
pleasure in the society of the older girl.

But they were a congenial crowd of merry young people, and when Mr.
Hepworth came down from the city, as he often did, and Kenneth Harper
drifted in from next-door, as he very often did, the house party at
Boxley Hall waxed exceeding merry.

And there was no lack of social entertainment. The Vernondale young
people were quite ready to provide pleasures for Patty's guests, and the
appreciation shown by Nan and the Barlows was a decided and very pleasant
contrast to the attitude of Ethelyn and Reginald.

Sailing parties occurred often, and these Nan enjoyed especially, for she
was passionately fond of the water, and dearly loved sailing or rowing.

The Tea Club girls all liked Nan, and though she was older than most of
them, she enjoyed their meetings quite as much as Bumble, Marian, or
Patty herself.

Bob soon made friends with the "Tea Club Annex," as the boys of Patty's
set chose to call themselves. Though not a club of any sort, they were
always invited when the Tea Club had anything special going on, and many
times when it hadn't.

One afternoon the Tea Club was holding its weekly meeting at Marian's.

"Do you know," Elsie Morris was saying, "that the Babies' Hospital is in
need of funds again? Those infants are perfect gormandisers. I don't see
how they can eat so much or wear so many clothes."

"Babies always wear lots of clothes," said Lillian Desmond, with an air
of great wisdom. "I've seen them; they just bundle them up in everything
they can find, and then wrap more things around them."

"Well, they've used up all their wrappings," said Elsie Morris, "and
they want more. I met Mrs. Greenleaf this morning in the street, and
she stopped me to ask if we girls wouldn't raise some more money for
them somehow."

"Oh, dear!" said Florence Douglass. "They just want us to work all the
time for the old hospital; I'm tired of it."

"Why, Florence!" said Patty. "We haven't done a thing since we had that
play last winter. I think it would be very nice to have some
entertainment or something and make some money for them again. We could
have some summery outdoorsy kind of a thing like a lawn party, you know."

"Yes," said Laura Russell, "and have it rain and spoil everything; and
soak all the Chinese lanterns, and drench all the people's clothes, and
everybody would run into the house and track mud al