"It's the longest piece I have, and rather a
nice soft one."

"Let us try putting our pips in the fire," said Nina. "You name one
after yourself, and another after someone you like, and then say:

'If you hate me, pop and fly;
If you love me, burn and die,'

and see whether you and the person you have chosen will stick to each
other or not. I'm going to try Evelyn Hastings."

"Is she your latest?" enquired Marian.

"I think she's perfectly beautiful. She let me carry her umbrella for
her this morning, and said I might do it to-morrow if I wanted. May
Spencer never speaks to me now."

"I should think she's tired of you. You must have been such a nuisance
always clinging on to her arm. Why can't you let the first class
alone? They don't want us."

"They mayn't want you, but they want me," said Nina, whose adoration
of the big girls was a perpetual joke in her class. "I held Evelyn's
wool yesterday, and pulled off her goloshes, and she never even asked
you."

"I shouldn't have done it if she had," declared Marian. "I'd let her
wait on herself. I think you're the silliest girl I know. Put your
wretched pips in the fire if you're going to."

The result was unfortunate. The one christened 'Nina' popped away
promptly, much to its owner's indignation.

"You won't stick to her, you see," laughed Marian, "You'll get tired
of her, and throw her over, as you do everybody else."

The amusement proved popular, and all the girls insisted upon trying
the fortunes of themselves and their friends.

Connie Camden was faithless to everybody; Jessie Ellis had a solitary
failure, but would not divulge the name she had chosen or make another
attempt; and Gwennie, to her great disgust, turned traitor to her
beloved Marian.

"We must go in together of course," said Hazel, throwing two pips, for
herself and Linda, into the flames. They were fat, juicy ones, and it
was a little while before they caught fire. Pop, pop, they both went,
each shooting to different sides of the grate with such violence that
they fell out into the fender.

"They haven't finished. We must try them again," cried Hazel, stooping
over the guard to pick them up.

"No! No!" exclaimed the others. "They've flown as hard as any could
fly. You've both done with each other entirely. Now someone else.
Linda, see if you have better luck with Sylvia!"

It was very foolish, but Sylvia looked on with quite a feeling of
anxiety as Linda dropped two carefu