n't ever want to do anything, Mumsey Sweetheart, that'd make you
the least little, _little_ bit unhappy!" Jerry had said after one of
these talks, suddenly pressing her mother's hand close to her cheek.

On Wednesday afternoon she declared to Mr. John, when he drove over from
Cobble, that she was "ready." She said it a little breathlessly--no
Crusader of old, starting forth upon his holy way, felt any more
exaltation of spirit than did Jerry!

"I've packed and I've mended my coat and I've finished mother's comfy
jacket that I began winter before last and I've said good-by to Rose and
poor old Jimmy Chubb, who's awfully envious, 'cause he wanted to go to
Troy to work in his uncle's store and he says it makes him mad to have a
girl see the world 'fore he does, but I told him he ought to keep on at
school, even if it was only Miller's Notch. And I've cleaned
Little-Dad's pipes. And I've promised Bigboy and Pepperpot and Dormouse
that they may all sleep on my bed to-night. I'm afraid Pepperpot--he's
so sensitive--is going to miss me dreadfully!" Jerry tried to frown away
the thought; she did not want it to intrude upon her joy.

That last evening she sat quietly on the porch with one hand in her
mother's and the other in Little-Dad's. Not one of them seemed to want
to talk; Jerry was too excited and her mother knew that she could not
keep a tremble from her voice. At nine o'clock Jerry declared that she'd
just _have_ to go to bed so that the morning would come quicker. She
kissed them both, kissed her mother again and again, then marched off
with her pets at her heels.

Far into the night her mother sat alone on the edge of the porch,
staring at the stars through a mist of tears and praying--first that the
Heavenly Father would protect her little Jerry always and always, and
then that He would give her strength to let the child go on the morrow.

When the parting came everyone tried to be very busy and very merry, to
cover the heartache that was under it all; John Westley fussed with the
covers and the cushions in the big car and had his chauffeur pack and
repack the bags. Mrs. Allan and Mrs. Travis discussed the lunch that had
been stowed away in the tonneau, as though the whole thing was only a
day's picnic. Jerry, a funny little figure in her coat that was too
small and a fall hat that Mrs. Chubb had made over from one of her
mother's, was, with careful impartiality, bestowing final caresses upon
Bigboy, Pepperpot, S