ust have gone out."

"Look in the envelope. Perhaps there is a card, too," suggested Arline
hopefully.

Grace peered into it a second time. Close to the inner surface of the
envelope lay a tiny strip of paper. She held it up triumphantly for
Arline's inspection.

"Is there any writing on it?" demanded Arline.

Grace scanned the strip of paper earnestly, turned it over and found the
faint lead-pencil inscription: "From a friend."

"Who can it be?" pondered Arline. "Do you recognize the hand-writing?"

"No." Grace looked puzzled. "It is a welcome gift. Just think, Arline,
we have one hundred dollars. Your fifty, and Miss Atkins's ten makes
sixty, and this makes seventy. The twenty-five dollars I have and twenty
dollars more from the four of us makes one hundred and fifteen dollars.
That will mean a great deal to those girls. I only wish it were more."

"If I had known sooner I would not have been so extravagant in buying my
Christmas presents," declared Arline regretfully. "There isn't time to
write Father for money. I don't like to telegraph. I've been positively
reckless with money this month. When I go home I'm going to have a talk
with Father. Oh, Grace Harlowe, I've a perfectly lovely idea," she
continued, joyfully clasping her two small hands about Grace's arm, "but
I am not going to say a word until I come back to Overton."

"Then I won't ask questions," smiled Grace. "Come, now, help me with
these packages. It is eight o'clock and we haven't made a start yet. We
had better wrap the presents in two large packages. I will ask Mrs.
Elwood for some wrapping paper, and we'll bring the suit case up here."

It was almost nine o'clock when Grace and Arline descended the steps of
Wayne Hall with mystery written on their faces. Each girl carried an
unwieldy bundle. In the center of Grace's bundle, securely wrapped in
fold after fold of tissue paper, was a little box. It contained one
hundred and fifteen dollars in bills. Wrapped about the bills was the
following note addressed to Esther Barlow, the freshman Grace had
encountered that afternoon: "Merry Christmas to yourself and your seven
freshmen friends. Santa Claus."

[Illustration: Each Girl Carried an Unwieldy Bundle.]

"How can we manage to deliver this stuff without being seen?" demanded
Arline. "My arms ache already, and we haven't walked a block."

Grace set down her bundle on a convenient horse block and paused to
consider. Arline dropped hers beside i