t really."

Then they sat in silence until Fairy announced that supper was ready.
"But I won't promise it is eatable," she assured them, laughing.

"I wish I could go to the table, too," said Prudence, looking at her
father wistfully, "I could lie on the old lounge out there."

"And have your supper on a tray, of course. Can you carry her, father?"

"I can!" volunteered Jerrold promptly. "I have done it."

"I think between us we can manage. We'll try it." And Prudence
heroically endured the pain of being moved, for the sake of seeing
Jerrold at the table with her parsonage family. For to her surprise, she
realized that she could not bear that even a few minutes should pass,
when she could not see the manly young face with the boyish mouth and the
tender eyes!

Prudence, at last, was aroused from her slumber.

CHAPTER XIII

SHE ORDERS HER LIFE

"Prudence, are you going to Aunt Grace's early in the summer, or late?"
demanded Fairy.

"Oh, let's not talk of that now. There's plenty of time."

"No, there isn't. School will be out in a week, and Babbie wants to
give a house party and have our little bunch at his home for a few days
this summer. He wants to set the date, and I can't tell him when
because I do not know when you are going to auntie's."

They sat around the breakfast table, Prudence and Fairy and their
father, talking of the summer. The twins and Connie had long since
excused themselves, and even now could be heard shouting gaily in the
field beyond the old red barn.

Prudence looked restlessly from one to the other, when her sister
insisted upon an answer.

"Why," she began, "I've about decided not to go to Aunt Grace's this
summer."

Fairy rapped on the table with the spoon she held in her hand. "Don't
be silly! You have to go. You've never had a vacation in your life,
and father promised Aunt Grace on his reputation as a minister, didn't
you, papa?"

"Yes, I promised all right."

"But, papa! I do not have to go, do I? A whole month,--oh, honestly,
I do not want to."

"Why don't you? Last fall you were wild about it. Don't you remember
dreaming----"

"Oh, but that was last fall," said Prudence, smiling softly, and
unconsciously she lifted one hand to where a bulky letter nestled
inside her dress. "I didn't know I was going to sprain my ankle, and
be so useless. It may be two weeks yet before I can walk on it."

"What has that got to do with it?"

"Do you real