n Dorothy and Nancy
had told the happenings at Glenmore, Mollie and Flossie took their turn,
and related all the Merrivale news.

"You know Sidney Merrington used to be so lazy last winter that he
didn't get on at all at school," said Flossie. "Arithmetic was all that
really vexed him, but because he had low marking for that, he wouldn't
try hard to do anything else.

"Well, Mollie promised to help him, (you needn't bother to poke me,
Mollie, for I _will_ tell) and she did help him every day, and after a
while he began to help himself, and last week his average on the exam.
was ninety-three. Wasn't that fine? He never would have got that if
Mollie hadn't helped him."

"Mollie, you were dear," said Dorothy.

"And Tess Haughton is ever so much nicer than she was," Mollie said, "for
she doesn't do anything now that seems,--why not quite true. That
doesn't sound just as I mean it. I know how to say it now. I mean that
she isn't sly. She is a good playmate, and a good friend."

"Oh, that's fine!" Dorothy and Nancy cried, as if with one voice.

"There's another fine thing to tell," said Flossie. "Reginald Dean, with
the help of his big dog saved a little boy from drowning. Reginald saw
him fall from the bridge, and he never stopped to think that he isn't
very big himself, but jumped right in, and was doing his best to save
him, when all at once his strength gave out, and he called for help. He
never dreamed that his dog had followed him, until with a splash he
jumped into the water close beside him, grabbed his clothes, and dragged
the two boys out."

"Wasn't that great?" said Dorothy, her hands tightly clasped, her eyes
shining. "Reginald has the new bicycle that he so wanted. His father
gave it to him, because he had been brave enough to forget danger, and
rush to aid the other boy," said Mollie, "and the dog is wearing a new
collar with a brass plate on it, engraved, 'I'm a Life-Saver.'"

"Katie Dean said she was almost sure that she saw Patricia Levine
yesterday," said Flossie, "but I said I thought she must still be away
at school. Do you know where she is now?"

"She might have seen her, for she left Glenmore before we did," Dorothy
said, and she was just in the midst of telling how Patricia had brought
the big cat home, and next had appeared with a little dog, when Mollie
said:

"Here she comes now. Why, she has a dog with her!"

"That's the one," said Nancy, "and she has him on a leash now, just as
she d