, let us behold the wild charge, the glistening
bayonets, the rushing horses, the blinding----'"

"But, Gyp, that's nothing about the Philippine Islands!"

"Of course not--at least all that about the horses and the bayonets--but
you could say, 'Let us pause----' and wave your hand--like this! Here,
he's used it again," her finger traced another line, "it sounds
splendid; so--so sort of--calm."

Jerry pounced upon anything that might sound "calm." So, after she had
compiled arguments that must convince her listeners that the Philippine
Islands should be given their independence, she tried them out behind
carefully-closed doors, with Gyp as a stern and relentless critic.

"Wave your hand _out_ when you say: 'Let us pause and consider----' Oh,
that's splendid! Try it again Jerry--slower. You're going to be
_great_!" Gyp's loyal enthusiasm strengthened Jerry's confidence.

There was for her, too, an added inspiration in the fact that Uncle
Johnny was to be one of the judges. She wanted to do her "very best" for
him. As the school weeks had flown by, each full of joys that Jerry
could realize more than any of the other girls and boys, her gratitude
toward John Westley had grown to such proportions that she ached for
some splendid opportunity to serve him. She had told Gyp, one day, that
she wished she might save his life in some way (preferably, of course,
with the sacrifice of her own), but as Uncle Johnny seemed
extraordinarily careful in front of automobiles and street cars, as the
Westley home was too fireproof to admit of any great fire and there
could not be, in November, any likelihood of a flood, poor Jerry pined
vainly for her great opportunity. Once, when she had tried to tell Uncle
Johnny, shyly, something of how she felt, he had drawn her
affectionately to him.

"Jerry-girl, you're doing enough right here for my girls to pay me back
for anything I have done." Which Jerry could not understand at all. She
could not know that only the evening before Mrs. Westley had told Uncle
Johnny how Gyp and Tibby had both moved their desks into Jerry's room,
and had added:

"Gyp and Tibby never quarrel since Jerry came. She has a way of
smoothing everything over--it's her sunniness, I think. Gyp is less
hasty and headstrong and Tibby isn't the cry-baby she was."

The day before the debate Isobel asked Jerry to show her the arguments
she had prepared.

"Perhaps I can add some notes that will help you," she explained
c