--that it was 'cause you're always nice to everybody and 'cause
you like to do everything--I won't _let_ you go!" There was something
very stubborn in Gyp's dark face; Jerry wished she had not come in. Just
before it had seemed so easy to slip away to Barbara Lee's and now----

"I never should have come here. I never should have let you all----"

Gyp gave her chum a little shake.

"Jerry Travis, Uncle Johnny brought you 'cause he said he knew you could
give Lincoln School and Isobel and me a lot--oh, of something--mother
read it in his letter--I remember. He said it was like a sort of
scholarship. And I heard mother tell him the day I was teasing her to
let me cut my hair short like yours, that she'd be willing to let me do
anything if I could learn to be as sunny as you are--I heard her, 'cause
I was listening to see if she was going to let me. So you've _more_ than
paid for everything. There's something more than just _money_! _You're_
too proud; you're prouder than Isobel herself----"

Jerry dropped her hat on the bed. Gyp took it as a promising sign and
she closed her arms tight around Jerry's shoulders.

"If you go away it will break my heart," she declared. "I love you
more'n any chum I ever had--more than _anybody_--except my family, of
course, and I love them differently, so it doesn't count. And mother
loves you, too, and so does Tibby, and so does Uncle Johnny. And if you
don't tell me right off that you won't go away I'll go straight to
mother and then we'll have to tell her how nasty Isobel was, and that'll
make _her_ unhappy. And I mean it." There was no doubt of that.

Gyp's concluding argument broke down Jerry's determination to go. No,
she could not; as Gyp had said, if she went away Mrs. Westley and Uncle
Johnny must know why. She could not do a single thing that would make
either of them the least unhappy. That would be poor gratitude. Perhaps
Gyp was right, too--that _she_ was too proud! Surely her mother would
never have let her come if it was going to bring the least humiliation
to her.

Gyp with quick fingers began to unbutton the brown dress. "Let's just
show Isobel that we don't care what she says. I think it's that horrid
Cora Stanton and Amy Mathers that makes her act so, anyway. They're
horrid! Amy Mathers puts peroxide on her hair and Cora Stanton cheated
in the geometry exam--everyone says so--I know what let's do, Jerry,
there were some cup cakes left; I saw them in the pantry--let's