helling,"
Connie leaned across Vi to say. "From what the boys say about him he must
be simply wonderful."

"Paul had better look out," said Laura slyly, and Connie drew back
sharply.

"I think you're mean to tease Connie so," spoke up Vi. "She doesn't like
Paul Martinson any better than the rest of us do, and you know it."

"Oh, I do, do I----" began Laura, but Billie broke in hastily.

"Girls," she cried, "stop your quarreling. Look! We're at the Academy.
And--look--look----" Words failed her, and she just stared wonderingly at
the sight that met her eyes. It was true, none of them had ever seen
anything like it before.

Booths of all sorts and colors were distributed over the parade ground,
leaving free only the part where the cadets were to march. Girls in
bright-colored dresses and boys in trim uniforms were already walking
about making brilliant patches of color against the green of the parade
ground.

There were some older people, too, fathers and mothers of the boys, but
the groups were mostly made up of young people, gay and excited with the
exhilaration of the moment.

There were girls and matrons in the costume of French peasants wandering
in and out among the visitors, carrying little baskets filled with
ribbon-tied packages. Some of these packages contained candy, some just
little foolish things to make the young folks laugh, favors to take away
with them and remember the day by.

As the carryall stopped and one after another the girls jumped to the
ground they were surprised to find that their nervousness, instead of
growing less, was getting worse and worse all the time.

They were standing on the edge of things, wondering just what to do next
and wishing some one would meet them when some one did just that very
thing.

Paul Martinson spied the carryall from Three Towers Hall, called to a
couple of his friends, and came running down toward the girls, his
handsome face alight with pleasure.

"Hello!" he said. "We thought you were never coming. Say, you make all
the other girls look like nothing at all." He was supposed to be talking
to them all, but he was looking straight at Billie.

But although the other girls noticed it, Billie did not. She was looking
beyond Paul to where three boys, Teddy in the lead, were bearing down
upon them.

After that the boys soon made their guests feel as if they had never been
nervous in their lives, and they entered into the fun with all their
hearts.

T