le up
there?" inquired Amy, glancing rather apprehensively at Grace. "You
know you said your father told you about his beginning to cut timber
and----"

"Oh, we needn't worry about that," declared Grace with confidence. "The
strip in dispute is far enough from the camp."

"Isn't it mean to have even that little worry, when it seemed as if
everything was going to be so nice?" murmured Mollie. "And that Alice
Jallow! I met her and Kittie on the street yesterday afternoon and I
just cut them both--dead."

"Mollie, you never did!" cried gentle Amy.

"Yes I did, and I'll do it again. I guess they were surprised, for I
heard them chattering like two--two crows--when I passed on."

"Serves them right--the way they talked about Amy," exclaimed Grace.

"Oh, but I don't want you girls to get into trouble on my account--to
fight my--my battles for me," faltered Amy. "It is unpleasant enough as
it is, without making it worse."

"Now don't you worry, little one," said Betty soothingly. "We can look
after ourselves, and I'd like to know why we should not break a lance or
two in your behalf."

"Of course!" cried Mollie.

"You're a member of our club," declared Grace, "and club members must
stand up for each other."

"Certainly," agreed Betty. "I don't like quarrels any more than you
girls do, but I do think that Alice Jallow ought to know that we resent
what she said."

"Oh, she knows it all right!" exclaimed Mollie. "I took good care that
she should! She's a regular--cat. No other word expresses what I mean,
and I don't care if it isn't a nice thing to say about a girl. She
deserves it."

Amy flushed and looked troubled.

"Don't let's talk about it," suggested Betty quickly, catching an
appealing glance from her little chum. "We all know there isn't the
least foundation for it, any more than there was at first, and that's an
old story."

"Oh, yes, there is a little more basis for it," said Amy in a low voice,
and with a hasty look around.

"There is?" cried Betty, before she thought. "Oh, I didn't mean that!"
she added quickly. "Don't tell us--unless it will make you feel better,
Amy."

"It will, I think. I have been going to ever since the day Alice hurt me
so, but I couldn't seem to come to it. But of late there has been a
change in--in Mr. and Mrs. Stonington."

"Don't you call them Uncle and Aunt any more?" asked Grace in a low
voice.

"I do to their faces--yes, but I don't think of them that way," and