yoah
eyes were so bad you couldn't see, and it was so pitiful. You asked to
feel it. I had to guide yoah poah little groping fingah down the page
and put it on the spot. It almost broke my heart!"

"I know," answered Betty. "I thought that I was going to be blind
always, and that my long, long night had begun. And it seemed queer that
the only thing I had ever published should be called Night. That was a
terrible experience."

She laid the paper carefully back into the portfolio from which it had
slipped, and picked up the next thing, a box of typewritten manuscript.

"My ill-starred novel--my story of Aberdeen Hall," she laughed. "Don't
you remember the night at the Lindsey cabin when I read it aloud, and
each one of you girls made such a solemn ceremony of wrapping it up? Gay
furnished the box, Lucy the paper, and Kitty tied it with a fresh pink
ribbon slipped out of her nightgown. And you put on the big red sealing
wax seals."

"With the handle of the old silvah ladle that had the Harcourt family
crest on it," interrupted Lloyd eagerly. "I can see it now, a daggah
thrust through a crown, and the motto, 'I strive till I ovahcome!'"

"That was an appropriate motto," laughed Betty. "It nearly killed me
when the novel came back from the publisher. I'd have burned it on the
spot if it hadn't been for your grandfather. But what he said encouraged
me to put that motto into practice. I'm glad now that I didn't burn the
manuscript, for I've lived to see its many faults, and to be thankful
that the publishers didn't accept it. I'd be heartily ashamed now to
claim it as mine before a critical public. But it has much that is good
in it, and I'll do it over some day and send it out as it ought to be.
In the meantime--"

She interrupted herself with a glad little cry. "Oh, I didn't tell you.
I've been so joyful thinking that Jack is coming to-night, that I forgot
I hadn't told you my good news. You know I've been working all winter on
a book of school-girl experiences. Well, I sent it to the publishers
several weeks ago, and I've just had their answer. They are so pleased
with it that they want me to go on and make a series of them. The letter
was lovely. I'll show it to you when we go down-stairs. It makes me feel
as if fame and fortune might be just around the corner."

"Oh, Betty!" was the breathlessly joyful answer. "I'm so _glad_! I'm so
_glad_! I've always told you you'd do it some day. It's a pity--" She
stopped her