we're going, for you're looking as solemn as
an owl. Cheer up and have a lovely time with your book and that jolly
fire, and don't forget to go to bed at nine o'clock like a good little
boy."

Mary Brewster laughed, and most of the others joined in her merriment.
But Mr. Cole looked so troubled and stern that Nan, who was gazing at
him from the corners of her eyes, saw no reason to laugh at his wife's
sally, but felt a much greater inclination to cry for pity of him and
his anxious face.

Suddenly she was roused from her musing by John Gardiner's voice close
at her ear.

"Nan!" he said.

"Oh, heyo, John!"

"I want to tell you something," he went on, nervously, in a hesitating
whisper. "From the looks of her, Mrs. Cole means to carry things with
a high hand to-night. Hope we won't come to grief. Sometimes the
motto is 'everything goes,' and then it isn't so easy to hold back and
stand for the things you ought to. I depend on you, Nan, to keep a
level head, for some of us'll have to act as ballast or we'll all go
under."

Nan's face glowed with gratification. "All right, John," she responded
staunchly, and then, Mrs. Cole giving the signal, in an instant the
roomful seemed to fling itself helter-skelter to the hall-door,
fastening boas and mufflers as it went, all eager and breathless to be
off. There was a deal of laughing and exclaiming, shrieking and
protesting as the girls were bundled, one after another, into the
sleigh.

"Is this you, Lu?"

"Yes. O dear! I have lost my veil. No, here it is, dragged under my
chin."

"I thought I was to sit next to you, Nan!"

"Oh, that's all right, Mary's there, and it's too late to change now.
No matter."

John Gardiner leaped up.

"I say there, Mike, hold your horses for a second. Would you mind
moving down a place, Mary? Thanks! Mrs. Cole said I was to sit next
to Nan, and as we are all under her orders to-night I'm bound to obey.
There! this is what I call festive! 'A thorn between two roses,' eh?"
and he settled himself comfortably between the two girls with a great,
hearty laugh and a final "Ready!" at which word the horses started into
a brisk trot. Their bells broke into a silver chime; the sleigh swept
smoothly over the glaze of snow, and the evening's fun began.

Some one had brought a tin horn, and this was blown with such a vim
that conversation was impossible. But remarks and retorts were shouted
from one side to the other, and the ta