girl should wake; and Charlotte,
when she fell asleep, dreamed of Lucy until morning.

It was quite a different Lucy who met them all in the morning. She
showed no ill effects except a slight languor, and when Charlotte had
established her in a hammock on the porch, she lay there with a quiet,
sober face, which showed that she had been doing some thinking.

When Jeff approached with his most deferential manner to inquire after
her welfare, she astonished him by saying more simply and sweetly than
he had dreamed possible:

"I want to tell you I won't forget what you did for me last night. I was
foolish, I suppose. I--I didn't think what I was doing was any harm, but
I--"

She choked a little and felt for her handkerchief. Jeff grasped her
hand. He had a warm heart, and he had not got over the thought of how he
should have felt if he had not been able to rescue the girl he had
attempted to lecture. His answer to Lucy was very gentle:

"We'll never think of it again. I'm awfully thankful it all ended well.
If you'll forgive me for frightening you, I'll say that I'm sure you're
really a sensible little girl, and I shan't lie awake nights worrying
over your taking midnight strolls."

His tone was not priggish, and his smile was so bright that Lucy took
heart of grace, and said, earnestly, "You needn't. I don't want any
more," and buried her face in her pillow.

But it was not to cry, for Evelyn came by. Jeff called to her, and
between them they soon had Lucy smiling. Before the day was over she had
had a little talk with Charlotte, in which the young married woman came
nearer to the heart of the girl that she had ever succeeded in doing
before, and Lucy had learned one or two simple lessons she never forgot.

"But it's the first and last time I ever attempt the education of the
young girl," declared Jeff, solemnly, to Evelyn, that afternoon, as they
gathered armfuls of old-fashioned June roses for the decoration of the
porch.

"Don't feel too badly. Lucy is going to value your respect very much
after this, and I think you'll be able to give it to her. A girl who has
no older brother misses a great deal, I think. I don't know what I
should have done without mine," answered Evelyn, reaching up to pull at
a pink cluster far above her head.

"Let me get that for you," and Jeff's long arm easily grasped the spray
and drew it down to her. "Well, I owe a lot to my sisters, that's sure."

With quite a knightly air he c