hung from her
waist, at the stained waist itself, from which the trimming fell in
festoons, and she was aghast. "Oh, what shall I do?" she breathed
helplessly.

"You certainly do look a sight," said Stella, none too comfortingly,
"but I wouldn't mind my clothes so much as my hands; just see how
they are all scratched up, and your face isn't much better. You were
too reckless; you ought not to have plunged in so far that you got
caught in the worst of the brambles; we didn't any of us plunge
around so as to get all mixed up that way."

"I know," returned Marian meekly, "I got too excited."

"I should think you did."

"I can't go into town this way," said Marian miserably. "I look like
a beggar girl."

"Anybody could see that you had been picking blackberries," said
Alice consolingly.

"But with such a looking frock they will laugh at me," said Marian
tearfully. "Oh, dear, I wish I had worn something that didn't tear."

"As the rest of us did," remarked Marjorie complacently.

"If you had only been careful and had kept on the edge of the
thicket," Stella said, then seeing how distressed Marian really
was, she went on: "You might take off your frock; I really think
you would look better without than with it."

"Oh!" Marian's cheeks flamed. To appear before the world
half-dressed was not to be thought of.

Stella looked her over critically. The frock she wore was a white
muslin spotted with pink, too frail a garment for such an
expedition.

"The waist isn't so terrible," said Alice examining it. "If we had
some pins we could fasten the trimming on so it wouldn't show the
tears much."

"Take off your frock, Marian," decided Stella; "I know what we can
do."

Marian obeyed the assured voice, and presently Stella was tearing
the ragged skirt from the waist, afterward pinning the trimming of
the waist in place. "Now come here," she said to Marian.

"What are you going to do?" the others asked in chorus.

"I am going to match your petticoat to your waist," said Stella,
addressing Marian. "I will dot it with pink, and it will never
be observed. You can wear the waist as it is, and have a skirt
to match."

"What are you going to spot it with?" asked Alice curiously.

"You'll see," answered her sister, taking a blackberry from her
basket and squeezing a little of the juice on Marian's petticoat.
"It isn't exactly the color, but it is near enough, and will never
be noticed unless you were very near. Now stand