his feet
indignantly. "Why, the thing can't be done without you, Chet. Didn't
Billie say--"

"Billie only said," interrupted Violet, coming to Billie's rescue, "that
Chet was crazy to go and would if he had half a chance."

Ferd sank back in his chair, too dismayed to speak.

"Well, of all--Say, old man, you've got to go," and he turned to Chet
pleadingly. "What sort of a party do you think this is going to be
anyway, with Billie at Three Towers Hall and you back here in North Bend?
It's not fair."

"Not fair," flared Billie. "You don't suppose I'd go to Three Towers and
leave Chet here, do you?"

"Then you're not going either?" cried Ferd, seeing all his castles in the
air coming down about his ears with a crash.

Billie shook her head unhappily.

"No, I'm not going either," she said.

CHAPTER VI

DEBBIE DESERTS

Billy Bradley really tried to be cheerful in the days that followed, but
try as she would she could not altogether keep out the vision of Three
Towers Hall, the boarding school to which she had wanted to go ever
since--well, almost since she had wanted anything.

Laura and Violet would go without her. They would have to go, even in
spite of their loyal determination not to. Their parents would have
something to say about that.

And Chet was in just as bad a fix, for Boxton Military Academy had been
his dream even as Three Towers Hall had been Billie's. Oh, if only they
could all go what a wonderful time they could have! Oh, well--

And Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, sensing something of all this, were very
unhappy and cast about desperately for some way to give their boy and
girl the advantages that the others would have. But money was very tight.
Mr. Bradley had all his cash tied up in several real estate transactions.

So for a little while the Bradleys were not a happy family--although
they tried bravely not to show it, even to each other.

Then one morning came a long, businesslike envelope, with a typewritten
address, that caused a stir in the family circle.

Mrs. Bradley opened it with a puzzled frown between her brows, then
uttered a startled exclamation.

"What is it, dear?" asked Mr. Bradley, while Billie and Chet crowded
closer to her chair.

"Aunt Beatrice Powerson is dead," Mrs. Bradley announced with a look more
of shocked surprise than of grief. "She died in Canada quite suddenly,
and this is from her attorney asking us," she looked across at her
husband, "to be present at