d grandma came over for a little
while. They all sat out on the porch and chatted. It was very beautiful
out on the porch,--greying twilight, and young little stars just coming
into being, all aquiver as if frightened.

The talk turned to Missy's imminent visit.

"Aren't you afraid you'll get homesick?" asked grandma.

It was Missy's first visit away from Cherryvale without her mother. A
year ago she would have dreaded the separation, but now she was almost
grown-up. Besides, this very summer, in Cherryvale, she had seen how for
some reason, a visiting girl seems to excite more attention than does
a mere home girl. Missy realized that, of course, she wasn't so
"fashionable" as was the sophisticated Miss Slade from Macon City who
had so agitated Cherryvale, yet she was pleased to try the experience
for herself. Moreover, the visit was to be at Uncle Charlie's!

"Oh, no," answered Missy. "Not with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Isabel. She's
so pretty and wears such pretty clothes--remember that grey silk dress
with grey-topped shoes exactly to match?"

"I think she has shoes to match everything, even her wrappers," said
grandma rather drily. "Isabel's very extravagant."

"Extravagance becomes a virtue when Isabel wears the clothes," commented
grandpa. Grandpa often said "deep" things like that, which were hard to
understand exactly.

"She shouldn't squander Charlie's money," insisted grandma.

"Charlie doesn't seem to mind it," put in mother in her gentle way.
"He's as pleased as Punch buying her pretty things."

"Yes--poor Charlie!" agreed grandma. "And there's another thing:
Isabel's always been used to so much attention, I hope she won't give
poor Charlie anxiety."

Why did grandma keep calling him "poor" Charlie? Missy had always
understood that Uncle Charlie wasn't poor at all; he owned the biggest
"general store" in Pleasanton and was, in fact, the "best-fixed" of the
whole Merriam family.

But, save for fragments, she soon lost the drift of the family
discussion. She was absorbed in her own trend of thoughts. At Uncle
Charlie's she was sure of encountering Romance. Living-and-breathing
Romance. And only two days more! How could she wait?

But the two days flew by in a flurry of mending, and running ribbons,
and polishing all her shoes and wearing old dresses to keep her good
ones clean, and, finally, packing. It was all so exciting that only at
the last minute just before the trunk was shut, did she remember