r all, is a pretty level-headed sort of person.
Well, here's hoping for the best."

Marion selected the four girls farthest in front and asked them to
approach the forward end of the car. They did so with some appearance
of apprehension, for by this time all the girls had begun to suspect
that something unusual was doing. This appeared to be evident also to
the half-dozen other passengers in the car, whose curious attention
naturally was directed toward the forward group of girls.

All of the girls received the information relative to the anonymous
letters so calmly that Marion felt just a little bit foolish because
of her groundless misjudgment of them. After the last group had read
the letters and discussed the situation with the trio of informants,
she spoke thus to them:

"Girls, you are real heroines, or have in you the stuff that makes
heroines, and that is about the same thing. You take this as calmly as
if it were an ordinary every-day affair in the movies. I'm proud of
you."

"We ought to be wearing Carnegie medals, oughtn't we, girls?" said
Julietta Hyde, blinking comically. "We can throttle anything from a
black-hand agent to a ghost."

"No, you ought to be wearing honor pins, for things well done," Miss
Ladd corrected. "We'll leave the Carnegie medals for those who haven't
any Camp Fire scheme of honors. But really, girls, you have all
conducted yourselves admirably in this affair. We will hope it won't
result in anything very serious, but meanwhile we must take proper
precautions."

"Shall we have to give up our vacation at Hollyhill on account of
this?" asked Katherine Crane almost as dejectedly as if she were being
sentenced to prison for violating a Connecticut blue law.

"That is up to you girls and the conditions that develop," answered
Miss Ladd. "As soon as we get to Hollyhill we will take the matter up
with the proper authorities and try to determine what the outlook is."

"My father will get busy as soon as he hears about this," said Marion.
"I think we can leave everything to his management. He will probably
advise us to give up the idea of doing anything for the strikers'
families and have as good a time as we can entertaining ourselves at
home."

"Oh, I hope not!" Katherine exclaimed, and the manner in which she
spoke indicated how much she had set her heart on the work they had
planned to do.

"It would be too bad to give it up," Marion said earnestly, "for I
understand some of th