u folks are
just the same thing. Lois is too small to go, she can't keep awake
after eight, so we can smuggle Claude in, instead." Whereupon that
little lad who had been walking along dejectedly at Nettie's side gave
a whoop of delight. Laura continued, "It's too bad Hugh and Mat can't
pose as my little brothers!"

"They are so inconveniently tall. Seems to me I can see Hugh's legs
lifting his poor head up higher and higher every day," said Ivy
dolefully. Laura laughed.

"The oak will never grow beyond the ivy's reach, so never fear! But
I'd better hurry home, for there's Alene, too--I must send a note to
her!"

"That will be splendid! Oh, Lol, your Mr. Edmonds will think when he
sees us all of that verse in the Scriptures, 'Go out into the highways
and byways and call the lame, the halt and the blind.'"

When they paused to say good-bye at the parting of the ways Ivy said
with a sudden rush of words:

"Now, Lol, don't go to thinking I'm a heroine because I proposed to
keep in the background for once! You don't know how I hesitated and
hated it."

"Don't you remember your story about the blooming flowers and the
singing birds?"

"Oh, Laura, it's so much easier for me to write about kind deeds than
to do them!"

"I only wish the rest of us Happy-Go-Luckys may do as well when the
time comes!" returned Laura.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

"Come here, Nettie," cried Laura; "I'll plait your hair so it will be
wavy for to-night, and then I want you to take a note to Alene."

Nettie was glad of the chance to visit the Towers but she objected to
having her hair brushed so vigorously.

"Mother, do make Nettie behave! She won't keep still and her hair gets
all tangled!"

"Nettie, you are too big to make so much noise. If you don't wish to
go with the others to-night, say so and Laura needn't bother,"
admonished Mrs. Lee.

"Of course I want to go but I hate this fussing," returned the little
girl.

"It would only serve you right if mother kept your hair cut straight
around from your ears, like the Hoover children!" remarked Laura.

This veiled threat had a good effect; Nettie made no more trouble and
soon her long tresses were confined in six tight braids and she was
free to seize her hat and go on her mission.

Holding the note folded tightly in her hand, she went up the steep
street and along the vine-covered wall of the Tower grounds, and
finally reached the stone steps leading