ou."

Then she disappeared with the biscuits, leaving her mother to rub her
nose and smile somewhat proudly.

"I guess it must have been a compliment," she chuckled, as she followed
Connie with a second plate of biscuits, "for they always seem to like
what I cook."

The girls were already waiting politely but impatiently for her. She was
about to sit down when she thought of Mr. Danvers. She looked hastily at
Connie.

"I told your father I'd send you after him when breakfast was ready," she
said; and Connie looked dismayed.

"Oh, bother!" she said. "I just know they'll eat all the biscuits before
I get back."

"No, we won't. We promise," said Billie; but Connie still looked doubtful
enough to make them giggle as she flung out of the door in search of her
father.

She had been gone scarcely two minutes when she returned triumphantly
with her father and Bruce in tow.

"They were just coming back," she told her mother, as she sank into her
seat and reached for a biscuit. "Daddy said he smelled the biscuits and
they drew him with----What was it you said they drew you with, Daddy?"

"Irresistible force?" asked Mr. Danvers, as he greeted the girls and took
his seat at the head of the table. "Now, if they only taste as they
smell----" He smiled at his wife across the table and she handed him a
plate full of the golden brown biscuits.

"Who owns the dog?" asked Laura boyishly, as Bruce sat down gravely at
Mrs. Danvers' side, looking up at her adoringly.

"Oh, please, excuse me; I forgot to introduce him," cried Mrs. Danvers,
dimpling and laying her hand lightly on the dog's head. "This is Robert
Bruce, and he's a thoroughbred and belongs to Uncle Tom, and lives over
at the lighthouse."

"The lighthouse," repeated Billie eagerly, then added as though she were
thinking aloud: "Oh, but I'm crazy to see it."

"Are you?" asked Connie's mother, looking surprised at Billie's
eagerness, for the lighthouse was an old story to her. "Connie can take
you over there to-day if you would like to go."

"Oh, won't that be lovely!" cried Vi. "I've always wanted to see inside a
real lighthouse. I want to know all about the lights and everything. When
can we go, Mrs. Danvers?"

"Any time you like," answered Mrs. Danvers, her heart warming to their
girlish enthusiasm. She was falling in love with Connie's friends more
and more every minute. "Uncle Tom receives visitors at all hours of the
day."

"And he has lots of 'em," added