Winship. "Cheer up, girls; better fortune next time."

"There are eight more of them burning on the griddles this moment, Polly," said Bell, scathingly; "and as they are yours, not mine, I advise you to throw them in the brook, with the rest of the batter, so that Hop Yet won't know that there has been a failure.'

"Some people blight everything they touch," sighed Polly, gloomily, as she departed for the kitchen.

"But when I lie in the green kirkyard " "Oh, Polly, dear," interrupted Margery, "that apology will not serve any longer; you've used it too often."

"This is going to be entirely different," continued Polly, tragically.

“But when I lie in the green kirkyard,

With the mould upon my breast,

Say not that she made flapjacks well,
Only, she did her best."

"We promise!" cried Bell.

IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE.

"O frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!'

He chortled in his joy."

POLLY'S birthday dawned auspiciously. At

six o'clock she was kissed out of a sound sleep by Bell and Margery, and the three girls slipped on their wrappers, and prepared to run through the trees for a morning plunge in Mirror Pool. Although it was August there was still water enough in Minnehaha Brook to give one a refreshing dip. Mirror Pool was a quarter of a mile distant, and well guarded with rocks and deep hidden in trees; but a little

pathway had been made to the water's edge, and thus the girls had easy access to what they called The Mermaid's Bath. A bay-tree was adorned with a little redwood sign, which bore a picture of a mermaid, drawn by Margery, and below the name these lines in rustic letters: "A hidden brook,

That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune."

Laura had not lived long enough in the woods to enjoy these cold plunges; and, as her ideal was a marble tub, with scented water, and a French maid to apply the same with a velvet sponge, it is not much wonder. She insisted that, though it was doubtless a very romantic proceeding, the bottom and sides of the natural tub were quite too rocky and rough for her taste, and that she should be in constant terror of snakes curling round her toes.

"I've a great mind to wake Laura, just for once," said Bell, opening the tent door. "There never was such a morning! (I believe I've said that regularly every day; but I simply never can get used to it.) There must have been a wonderful sunrise, dears, for the glow has n't faded yet. Not a bit of morning fog, that's good for Elsie. And what a lovely day for a birthday! Did they

use to give you anything like this in Vermont, Polly?"

"Hardly," said Polly, peering over Bell's shoulder. "Let's see. What did they give us in Vermont this month? Why, I can't think of anything but dog-days, hot nights, and hay fever; but that sounds ungrateful. Why, Geoff's up already! There's Elsie's bunch of vines, and twigs, and pretty things hanging on her tent-door. He's been off on horseback. Just my luck to have him get up first. Jack always does, you know; and last night I sewed up the tent-opening with carpetthread, good and tight, overhand, — stitches I would n't be ashamed of at a sewing-school."

"Oh, you naughty girl!" laughed Bell. "The boys could rip it open with a knife in half the time it took you to sew it."

"Certainly. I did n't mean to keep them

sewed up all day; but I thought I'd like Jack to remember me the first thing this morning." "Girls," whispered Margery, excitedly," don't stand there mooning -or sunning-forever! I thought there was a gopher in this tent last night. I heard something scratching, and I thought it was the dog outside; but just look at these two holes almost under Laura's pillow!" "Let's fill them up, cover them over, any

thing!" gasped Bell.

"Laura will never sleep

here another night, if she sees them."

66

Nobody insured Laura against gophers,"

said Polly. "She must take the fortunes of

"I would n't wake her," said Margery. "She did n't sleep well, and her face is flushed. Come, or we shall be late for breakfast."

When they returned, fresh and rosy, from their bath, there was a stir of life in all the tents. Pancho had come from the stage-station with mail; an odor of breakfast issued from the kitchen, where Hop Yet was humming a fragment of Chinese song, that ran something like this,

not loud, but unearthly enough, as Bell used to say, to spoil almost any cooking :

Nasally.

4

4

Fong fong mong mong tiu he sun

yi - u

sou chong howki-u me yun tan-tar che ku choi song!

Dicky was abroad, radiant in a new suit of clothes, and Elsie pushed her golden head out between the curtains, and proclaimed herself strong enough for a wrestling-match with any boy or man about the camp.