ssons to be prepared for the morrow, but the reflection in
the mirror had so disturbed her that she cast lessons aside and
commenced reading a story in a new magazine. The heroine was described
as having a wonderful complexion, as fair, as pink and white, as perfect
in coloring as a sea-shell.

"Of course!" said Ida, "and that's the sort I wish I had."

Her eyes strayed from the story of the beautiful heroine to the
advertising column.

"Raise mushrooms," read one advertisement, next: "Try our patent
collar-button," then: "Write poems for us."

"How stupid!" she said. "Who'd want to raise mushrooms, I'd like to
know? Who wants their old collar-buttons? And for mercy's sake, how many
people who read those advertising columns can write poetry?"

She was about to toss the magazine upon the couch, when two words in
large print caught her attention.

"Banish freckles--"

"What's that?" she whispered.

"Banish freckles and have a perfect complexion," she read. "Send fifty
cents to us, or obtain our tonic at any drug-store. Directions inside
package."

It must have been the best of good luck that had prompted her to neglect
her lessons, and spend the evening hours with the magazine, she thought.

She was far too impatient to wait to receive the tonic by mail.

She had never been to the local drug-store, so the clerks would not know
her, but if any of the Glenmore girls were there, she would buy some
candy, and wait until another day to obtain the tonic.

She drew a long breath when she saw, upon entering, that she was the
only customer.

The clerk thought it odd that a little girl should be buying a
complexion-beautifier, but concluded that she, doubtless, was doing the
errand for some older person.

Night came, and at the hour when Vera and Elf with Betty and Valerie
were tasting their goodies, and listening to every sound that might be
approaching footsteps, Ida Mayo, not a whit less excited, was
breathlessly reading the directions for applying the tonic.

"Spread the tonic over the face, rubbing it thoroughly into the skin.
Let it remain all night. You will be astonished at the result."

A dozen times during the night she had been awakened with the scalding,
burning of her face. The directions had said that the skin would
probably burn, but the result in the morning would fully repay the user,
by the extreme loveliness of the radiant complexion!

Ida bore the burning bravely, but when the first faint li