al picture; a red-haired, laughing,
admiring-eyed boy walking along beside a girl in white fox furs--and
the girl was not Genevieve Hicks. The delights of the vision must have
reflected in her face because finally her father said:

"Well, Missy, what's all the smiling about?"

Missy blushed as if she'd been caught in mischief; but she answered,
wistfully rather than hopefully:

"I was just thinking how nice it would be if I had some white fox furs."

"For heaven's sake!" commented mother. "When you've already got a new
set not two months old!"

Missy didn't reply to that; she didn't want to seem unappreciative.
It was true she had a new set, warm and serviceable, but--well, a
short-haired, dark-brown collarette hasn't the allure of a fluffy,
snow-white boa.

Mother was going on: "That ought to do you two winters at least--if not
three."

"I don't know what the present generation is coming to," put in Aunt
Nettie with what seemed to Missy entire irrelevance. Aunt Nettie was a
spinster, even older than Missy's mother, and her lack of understanding
and her tendency to criticize and to laugh was especially dreaded by her
niece.

"Nowadays girls still in knee-skirts expect to dress and act like
society belles!"

"I wasn't expecting the white fox furs," said Missy defensively. "I
was just thinking how nice it would be to have them." She was silent
a moment, then added: "I think if I had some white fox furs I'd be the
happiest person in the world."

"That doesn't strike me as such a large order for complete happiness,"
observed father, smiling at her.

Missy smiled back at him. In another these words might have savoured of
irony, but Missy feared irony from her father less than from any other
old person.

Father was a big, silent man but he was always kind and particularly
lovable; and he "understood" better than most "old people."

"What is the special merit of these white fox furs?" he went on,
and something in the indulgent quality of his tone, something in the
expression of his eyes, made hope stir timidly to birth in her bosom and
rise to shine from her eyes.

But before she could answer, mother spoke. "I can tell you that. That
flighty Hicks girl went by here this afternoon wearing some. That
Summers boy who clerks in Pieker's grocery was with her. He once wanted
Missy to go walking with him and I had to put my foot down. She doesn't
seem to realize she's too young for such things. Her brown furs will