; away from the
old into the new; away from the usual into the you-don't-know-what; away
from "you must not" into "you may." The wild, free, bright, heedless
urge of Spring!

Behind their fragrant rampart they paused, for a second, to spin about
in a kind of mental and spiritual whirlpool. Some began breaking off
floral sprays to decorate hat-band or shirt-waist. But Missy, feeling
her responsibility as a leader, glanced back, through leafy crevices, at
those prison-windows open and ominously near.

"We mustn't stay here!" she admonished. "We'll get caught!"

As if an embodiment of warning, just then Mrs. Clifton emerged out on
her front porch; she looked as if she might be going to shout at them.
But Raymond waited to break off a lilac cluster for Missy. He was
so cool about it; it just showed how much he was like the Black
Prince--though of course no one would "understand" if you said such a
thing.

The fragrantly beplumed company sped across the green Clifton yard,
ruthlessly over the Clifton vegetable garden, to the comparative retreat
of Silver Street, beyond. But they were not yet safe--away! away! Missy
urged them westward, for no defined reason save that this direction
might increase their distance from the danger zone of the High School.

Still without notion of whither bound, the runaways, moist and
dishevelled, found themselves down by the railroad tracks. There,
in front of the Pacific depot, stood the 10:43 "accommodation" for
Osawatomie and other points south. Another idea out of the blue!

"Let's go to Osawatomie!" cried Missy.

The accommodation was puffing laboriously into action as the last Junior
clambered pantingly on. But they'd all got on! They were on their way!

But not on their way to Osawatomie.

For before they had all found satisfactory places on the red plush seats
where it was hard to sit still with that bright balminess streaming
in through the open windows--hard to sit still, or to think, or to do
anything but flutter up and down and laugh and chatter about nothing at
all--the conductor appeared.

"Tickets, please!"

A trite and commonplace phrase, but potent to plunge errant, winging
fancies down to earth. The chattering ceased short. No one had
thought of tickets, nor even of money. The girls of the party looked
appalled--in Cherryvale the girls never dreamed of carrying money to
school; then furtively they glanced at the boys. Just as furtively
the boys were exploring int