hogs."

There was a sudden giggle from Tilly--an explosive giggle that brought
every amazed eye upon her.

"Well, really, Tilly," disapproved Elsie, aggrievedly, "I'm sure I don't
see _what_ there was so very funny in that!"

"There wasn't," choked Tilly; "only I was thinking, what an awful noise
it would be if all those 2,321,000 hogs got under the gate at once."

"Tilly!" scolded Cordelia; but she laughed.

She could not help it. They all laughed. Even the little boys and girls
on the outskirts giggled shrilly, and stole the opportunity to draw
nearer to the magic circle. Almost at once, however, Cordelia regained
her dignity.

"Miss Mack, we'll hear from you, please--seriously, I mean. You haven't
told us yet what you've found."

Tilly flushed a little.

"I didn't find anything."

"Why, Tilly Mack!" cried a chorus of condemning voices.

"Well, I didn't," defended Tilly. "In the first place I've told
everything I can think of: trees, fruits, history, and everything; and
this morning I just had to go to Mrs. Miller's for a fitting."

"Oh, Tilly, _another_ new dress?" demanded Elsie Martin, her voice a
pathetic wail of wistfulness.

"But there are still so many things," argued Cordelia, her grave eyes
fixed on Tilly, "so many things to learn that--" She was interrupted by
an eager little voice from the outskirts.

"I've got something, please, Cordelia. Mayn't I tell it? It's a
brand-newest thing. Nobody's said it once!"

Cordelia turned to confront her ten-year-old cousin, Edith.

"Why, Edith!"

"And I have, too," piped up Edith's brother, Fred, with shrill
earnestness. (Fred was eight.) "And mine's new, too."

Cordelia frowned thoughtfully.

"But, children, you don't belong to the club. Only members can talk, you
know."

"Pooh! let's hear it, Cordelia," shrugged Tilly. "I'm sure if it's
_new_, we need it--of all the old chestnuts we've heard to-day!"

"Well," agreed Cordelia, "what is it, Edith? You spoke first."

"It's gypsies," announced the small girl, triumphantly.

"Gypsies!" chorused the Happy Hexagons in open unbelief.

"Yes. There's lots of 'em there--more than 'most anywhere else in the
world."

The girls looked at each other with puzzled eyes.

"Why, I never heard Genevieve say anything about gypsies," ventured
Tilly.

"Well, they're there, anyhow," maintained Edith; "I read it."

"You read it! Where?" demanded Cordelia.

"In father's big sac'l'pedia." Edith's voice sounde