leader selected such a comparatively stupid girl as herself as a
chum.

For Missy thought she must be stupid. She wasn't "smart" in school like
Beulah Crosswhite, nor strikingly pretty like Kitty Allen, nor president
of the Iolanthians like Mabel Dowd, nor conspicuously popular with
the boys like Genevieve Hicks. No, she possessed no distinctive traits
anybody could pick out to label her by--at least that is what she
thought. So she felt on her mettle; she wished to prove herself worthy
of Tess's high regard.

It was rather strenuous living up to Tess. Sometimes Missy couldn't help
wishing that her chum were not quite so alert. Being all the while on
the jump, mentally and physically, left you somewhat breathless and
dizzy; then, too, it didn't leave you time to sample certain quieter yet
thrilling enjoyments that came right to hand. For example, now and then,
Missy secretly longed to spend a leisurely hour or so just talking with
Tess's grandmother. Tess's grandmother, though an old lady, seemed to
her a highly romantic figure. Her name was Mrs. Shears and she had lived
her girlhood in a New England seaport town, and her father had been
captain of a vessel which sailed to and from far Eastern shores. He had
brought back from those long-ago voyages bales and bales of splendid
Oriental fabrics--stiff rustling silks and slinky clinging crepes and
indescribably brilliant brocades shot with silver or with gold. For
nearly fifty years Mrs. Shears had worn dresses made from these romantic
stuffs and she was wearing them yet--in Cherryvale! They were all made
after the same pattern, gathered voluminous skirt and fitted bodice and
long flowing sleeves; and, with the small lace cap she always wore
on her white hair. Missy thought the old lady looked as if she'd just
stepped from the yellow-tinged pages of some fascinating old book.
She wished her own grandmother dressed like that; of course she loved
Grandma Merriam dearly and really wouldn't have exchanged her for the
world, yet, in contrast, she did seem somewhat commonplace.

It was interesting to sit and look at Grandma Shears and to hear her
recount the Oriental adventures of her father, the sea captain. But Tess
gave Missy little chance to do this. Tess had heard and re-heard the
adventures to the point of boredom and custom had caused her to take her
grandmother's strange garb as a matter of course; Tess's was a nature
which craved--and generally achieved--novelty.

J