of things, even if he did leave there when he was a tiny little
baby!"

"Don't you fret, Cordy," retorted Tilly. (Cordelia did not like to be
called "Cordy," and Tilly knew it.) "Harold Day will talk Texas all
right after Genevieve gets back. Besides, you couldn't expect a boy to
join in with a girls' club like us, just as if he were another
girl--specially as he isn't going to Texas, anyway."

"Well, all he ever does is just to sit and look bored--except when
Tilly gets in some of her digs," chuckled Bertha.

"Glad I'm good for something, if nothing but to stir up Harold, then,"
laughed Tilly, as she turned away to answer Elsie Martin's anxious:
"Tilly, what color is the new dress? Is it red?"

It was the next day that the letter came from Genevieve. Cordelia
brought it to the club meeting that afternoon; and so full of importance
and excitement was she that for once she quite forgot to open the
meeting with her usual ceremony.

"Girls, girls, just listen to this!" she began breathlessly.

The Happy Hexagons opened wide their eyes. Never before had they seen
the usually placid Cordelia like this.

"Why, Cordelia, you're almost girlish!" observed Tilly, cheerfully.

Cordelia did not seem even to hear this gibe.

"It's a letter from Genevieve," she panted, as she hurriedly spread open
the sheet of note paper in her hand.

"Dear Cordelia, and the whole Club," read
Cordelia, excitedly. "I came up yesterday from New
Jersey with the Hardings for two days in New York.
I have been to see the animals at the Zoo all the
afternoon, and I'm going to see the Hippodrome
this evening. That sounds like another animal but
it isn't one, they say. It's a place all lights
and music and crowds, and with a stage 'most as
big as Texas itself, with scores of real horses
and cowboys riding all over it.

"I am having a perfectly beautiful time, but I
just can't wait to see my own beloved home on the
big prairie, and have you all there with me. I
sha'n't see it quite so soon though, for father
has been delayed about some of his business, and
he can't come for me quite so soon as he expected.
He says we sha'n't get away from Sunbridge until
the fifth; but he's engaged five sections in a
sleeper leaving Boston at eight P. M. So we'll go