hat
they were telling.

"And you, Jerry-girl, what did you think of it all?"

Because she had felt like one little drop in a very big puddle, Jerry
simply couldn't tell. But her eyes were shining. Gyp broke in. "Jerry
could be a Junior if she wanted to, but she's going to stay in my
study-room for awhile. And they've signed her up for _every single
thing_!"

Jerry, ignorant of Lincoln traditions, did not know that this was a
tribute.

Then she had wondered when, with everything else, she would find time
for her Cicero and geometry.

"Who you got? Speck-eyes?"

"Graham----" cried Mrs. Westley. "I will _not_ have you speaking in that
way of your teachers!"

Graham colored; he knew that this was a point upon which his mother had
always been very firm.

"Oh, Miss Briggs is all _right_--I like her, but all the fellows call
her that."

"Do you suppose they'll nickname Miss Lee?"

To Jerry it seemed that _that_ would be sacrilege--she was too dear!
Uncle John had, then, to hear all about her. He was much interested, he
had not realized that she was grown-up enough to teach.

"But she really doesn't seem a bit so," Gyp explained.

Then quite suddenly Graham asked Jerry: "Say, Jerry, who was your
guardian?"

Jerry's face turned very red. She caught a defiant look from Isobel. She
did not want to answer; even the ethics of the little school at Miller's
Notch had had no tolerance for a telltale.

"A--a Senior. She couldn't find me."

Poor Jerry--Graham's careless inquiry had dimmed her enthusiasm. Why
hadn't Isobel found her? With the friendliness of spirit that was such a
part of the very atmosphere of Lincoln, why had Isobel, alone, stood
aloof? She looked at Isobel--she was so pretty now as she talked, with
animation, to Uncle Johnny. Jerry thought, as she watched her, that
she'd rather have Isobel love her than any of those other nice girls she
had met at Highacres--Patricia Everett, Ginny Cox, Peggy Lee, Keineth
Randolph----

"I'll just _make_ her," she vowed, gathering up her shiny new
school-books. And that solemn vow was to help Jerry over many a rough
spot in the schooldays to come.

CHAPTER IX

THE SECRET DOOR

The routine of Jerry's new life shaped into pleasant ways. She felt more
like Jerry Travis and less like a dream-creature living in a golden
world she had brought around her by wishing on a wishing-rock. She could
not have found a moment in which to be homesick; twice a week she