to go anywhere so much in all my life! But some one's got to
stay with mama."

"I'd go crazy,--not KNOWING!" said Ellen. "Who are you going to ask?"

"There it is!" said Mary Bell. "Until yesterday I thought, of course,
Gran'ma Scott would come. Then Mary died, and she went up to Dayne. So
I went over and asked Bernie; her baby isn't but three weeks old, you
know, and I thought she might bring it over here. Mama would love to
have it! But late last night Tom came over, and he said Bernie was so
crazy to go, they were going to take the baby along!"

"You poor thing!" said the sympathetic listener.

"I was nearly crazy!" said Mary Bell, crimping a pink ruffle with
careful finger-tips. "I was working on this when he came, and after
he'd gone I crumpled it all up and cried all over it! Well, I guess I
didn't sleep much, and finally, I got up early, and wrote a letter to
Aunt Matty, in Sacramento, and I ran over to Dinwoodie's with it this
morning, and asked Lew if he was going up there to-day. He said he was,
and he took the note for Aunt Mat. I told her about the dance, and that
every one was going, and asked her to come back with Lew. He said he'd
see her first thing!"

"Oh, she will!" said Ellen, confidently. "But, say, Mary Bell, why
don't you walk over to the hotel with me now and ask Johnnie if she'll
stay if your aunt doesn't come? I don't believe she and Walt are going."

"They mightn't want to leave the hotel on account of drummers on the
night train," said Mary Bell, dubiously. "And that's the very time mama
gets most scared. She's always afraid there are boes on the train."

"Boes!" said Ellen, scornfully, "what could a bo do!"

"Well, I WILL go over and talk to Johnnie," said Mary Bell, with sudden
hope. "I'm going to get all ready except my dress, in case Aunt Mat
comes," she confided eagerly, when she had kissed the drowsy mother,
and they were on their way.

"Say, did you know that Jim Carr is going to-night with Carrie
Parmalee?" said Ellen, significantly, as the girls crossed the clean,
bare dooryard, under the blossoming locust trees.

Mary Bell's heart grew cold,--sank. She had hoped, if she DID go, that
some chance might make her escort no other than Jim Carr.

"It'll make me sick if she gets him," said Ellen, frankly. Although
engaged herself, she felt an unabated interest in the love-affairs
about her.

"Is he going to drive her over?" asked Mary Bell, clearing her throat.

"No, thank th