ion."

"Mayn't I tell you?"

"No, sir-ee. You see, I don't want to know for years yet! _Why_ can't
people let me alone?"

"Who else has been bothering you?" demanded Hal, jealously.

"I don't call it a bother! I supposed it was part of the game. Don't
all girls have nice compliments, and flattery kind of speeches from
the young men they know?"

"I don't know whether they do or not," growled Hal.

"Well, I know; they do, and they don't mean a thing; it's part of the
game, you know. Now, I'll tell you something. I've known Philip Van
Reypen ever so much longer than I have you, and yet I like you both
exactly the same! And Roger just the same,--and Jim just the same!"

"And Martin, the chauffeur, just the same, I suppose; and Mike, the
gardener, just the same!"

"Yep," agreed Patty. "_Everybody_ just the same! I think that's the
way to do in this world, love your neighbour as yourself, and look
upon all men as free and equal."

"Well, I don't think all girls are equal,--not by a long shot. To my
mind they're divided into two classes."

"What two?" said Patty, with some curiosity.

"One class is Patty Fairfield, and the other class is everybody else."

They had reached the bottom of the hill before this, and were sitting
on the sled, talking. Patty jumped up and clapped her hands. "That's
about the prettiest speech I ever had made to me! It's a beautiful
speech! I'm going right straight up the hill and tell it to everybody!"

"Patty, _don't_!" cried Hal, his honest, boyish face turning crimson.

"Oh, then you didn't mean it!" and Patty was the picture of
disappointment.

"I did! _Of course_ I did! But girls don't run and tell everything
everybody says to them!"

"Don't they? Well, then, _I_ won't. You see, I haven't had as much
experience in these matters as you have! Mustn't I _ever_ tell
anything nice that _anybody_ says to me?"

"Not what _I_ say to you, anyhow! You see, they're confidences."

"Well, I don't want any more of them just now. I came out here for
coasting, not for confidences."

"I fear, my dear little girl, you're destined all through life to get
confidences, whatever you may go for."

"Oh, what a horrible outlook! Well, then, let me gather my coasting
while I may! Come on, Chubsy, let's go up the hill." And putting her
hand in Hal's, Patty started the upward journey.

At the top she declared she was going for one more ride downhill, and
this time with Jim. "For," she said to hers