sistence on toasting her own "hot dog" led to a general
clamor for sticks and Doctor Hugh obligingly whittled a dozen wands.
taking care to make them long as a precaution against a too eager
approach to the fire.

The table looked very pretty when Rosemary summoned them, for a bouquet
was in the center and tiny wreaths of flowers circled the paper dishes.
Warren's coffee was pronounced delicious and Winnie received so many
compliments on her stuffed eggs and the potato salad that she told Mrs.
Hildreth it would serve her right if the cake should turn out to be
soggy.

"Then," declared Mrs. Hildreth neatly, "I should know it was no cake of
your baking!"

But one distressing incident interrupted the serene progress of that
wonderful supper--when the paper cup of ants and bugs and beetles and
flies that Sarah had captured before sitting down, upset directly into
her saucer of home-made ice cream. Even that catastrophe could not mar
the general enjoyment, though Sarah retired to fish out the bugs
carefully by hand with the forlorn hope of "drying them off and saving
them."

When the supper was over and everything cleared away, Warren built up
the fire again and they gathered around it. The day had been warm but
a slight chill was in the air--the early touch of fall.

"It doesn't seem as though we were going home to-morrow," remarked
Rosemary pensively. "And school opens next week."

"The summer has gone so swiftly," said Mrs. Willis. "I can scarcely
realize that this is September. The Hammonds have started--Hugh had a
letter yesterday."

"I think it's been a long summer," declared Sarah, trying to hide a
yawn.

"Well, I'm glad it's over," said Louisa bluntly.

Then the baby June was discovered asleep in Alec's lap and Mrs.
Robinson offered to take her back to the house and put her to bed.
Louisa decreed that bed-time had arrived for the other Gays and they
all turned homeward, promising to say good by to the Willises in the
morning.

"And remember you've promised to bring Rosemary out to see us this
winter, Doctor Willis," Louisa reminded him.

"You come along, Sarah, and see the new tricks I've taught your pig,"
said Mr. Robinson with the kindest intention in the world.

Sarah made no reply. She had never voluntarily mentioned Bony since
the morning she had watched him driven off the farm and gradually her
mother and sisters had forgotten him. Not so Sarah. She never forgot
but nothing ever induced