at they had already done.
"Do you think it is right as far as we've gone?" she asked anxiously.

He looked over the page she offered him. "Pretty good so far. Let me
see. I think that must be John B. J on B. you see."

"Of course, it is, why didn't we think of that? And this one, what do
you think that can be?"

Ben looked at this thoughtfully, and presently declared he had it. So
bit by bit the puzzle was completed and within an hour was in such shape
as pleased the girls immensely.

"Now," said Ben, "I'll tell you what I can do. I want to take the noon
train to town and I'll get this right down to the newspaper office
myself; I have to go near there, and so it will reach them much quicker
than if it were sent by mail, you see."

"Oh, Cousin Ben, you are a perfect dear!" cried Edna. "I think that is
just lovely of you. We are so much obliged, aren't we, Nettie?"

"I am very much obliged to both of you," returned Nettie sedately.
Edna's interest was so great that she forgot she was not doing this for
herself at all.

"Shall we tell your mother?" asked Edna when Ben had gone, promising
that he would attend to the puzzle the very first thing.

"Why--" Nettie hesitated, "I'd like to have her know and yet I would
love dearly to have it for a surprise if we did win. When do you suppose
we will know?"

"Not before next Friday, I suppose, but that will be soon enough, won't
it?"

"Yes, except that I can scarcely wait to know, and it is hard to keep a
secret from your mother that long."

"Why don't you tell her that you have a secret and that you can't tell
her till Friday?"

"I might do that, but then suppose I shouldn't win; we would both be
disappointed."

"What did you tell her just now that we were all doing?"

"I told her we were doing a puzzle, and she said as long as I had done
my morning's work I could stay with you. I have still my stockings to
darn, but I can do those this afternoon. Mother always lets me do them
when I choose; so long as I get them done before Sunday, that is all she
asks."

Edna looked very sympathetic. She did not have to do her stockings
nowadays, though she remembered that it had been one of the week's tasks
when she was staying with Aunt Elizabeth, and it was one she much
disliked. She stayed a little while longer and then returned home, for
Dorothy was coming that afternoon and they were both going over to see
Margaret to make what Dorothy said was their party call.

The