e above.

As for Peggy, she jumped up and down in her enthusiasm till her golden
hair was tumbling in a tangle about her pink shells of ears.

"Oh, goody! goody! goody!" she squealed in the intensity of her joy.

CHAPTER III.

THE CLOUDS GATHER.

"And so unless we can raise that money somehow within a short time we
shall have to leave dear old Shadyside!"

It was Roy who spoke, in troubled tones, some days after the successful
flight of the Golden Butterfly. They were seated in the cool-looking
living room of Miss Prescott's home. The sun filtering in through the
Venetian blinds, fell in patches on the polished floors--Peggy's work,
for Miss Prescott's circumstances had been for some time too straitened
to afford the servants she formerly had. But she had kept all knowledge
of her struggle from her nephew and niece, until now the time had arrived
when she felt that she could conceal no longer the object of old Sam
Harding's visit to her.

The old man, among other things, was President of the Sandy Bay Bank.
This bank, although the children did not know it, had long held a
mortgage on Miss Prescott's property. The kindly, sweet-souled lady had
incurred the debt to forward her brother's dreams. For poor Mr. Prescott
had always been "just on the verge of making a fortune." Mr. Harding's
errand was to state that the interest being long overdue and there being
no immediate prospect of settlement the bank would have to foreclose. The
real reason for this anxiety, which of course Miss Prescott,
simple-minded lady, could not know, was, that a real estate concern
wanted to purchase the property to erect a summer colony.

"But what of my securities in----and----and----?" inquired poor Miss
Prescott, who really knew no more of business than Peggy's French
bull-dog.

"In the depressed state of the market that class of securities are worth
nothing, madam," was the response, "in addition, though I have refrained
from telling you so till now, your account at the bank is much overdrawn.
However," he had continued, "to show you that we mean to be fair with you
we will say nothing about that, but unless the bank gets its interest we
must have the land."

It was Miss Prescott's relation of the true state of affairs to Roy and
Peggy that sunny afternoon that had brought forth Roy's exclamation
recorded at the beginning of this chapter.

"But, auntie," burst out Peggy, blankly, "does the man mean to say that
there is n