e one!"

"Instead of a bird that will be a butterfly," interposed Ivy; "or a
cowslip!"

"Or a buttercup and a honey-bee," returned Alene.

"You wretches! Here's one to get even. As Mrs. Kump works at
quilting, we ought to send her a quilting-bee!"

Laura's sally was greeted with groans.

"Well, there's something you won't groan about. Mrs. Kump was
lamenting that she couldn't go out to pick any berries this year and so
will miss her jam. Let's go blackberrying to-morrow morning, if the
boys will go along; we can get home before noon and I'll make her a jar
of jam."

"Splendid!" cried Alene, "I've never gone berrying in my life!"

"What's the matter with you, Ivy? You are not usually so shy!"

"It will be too far for me," said Ivy dejectedly.

"Where did you think I meant to go? Why, just around the road, on the
hillside near the bridge!"

"There's not a berry left there! Hugh went over this morning and found
the bushes stripped! The nearest place is Thornley's, three miles
away!"

"Then of course we won't go! I wonder if you could go horseback? I
was thinking that Mat could borrow the groceryman's horse."

"No, Lol, I never learned to ride. Besides, it would be so jolty! The
rest of you go without me; the walk will be only a pleasure for you!"

The girls protested against this; they talked of other things connected
with Mrs. Kump's birthday party, and the blackberry project was
apparently abandoned.

A bright thought had come to Alene, however, which she resolved to keep
a secret until she found if she could carry out her plan.

It all depended on her uncle, whom she expected to come up the street
at any moment, on his way home from the office. She jumped up when she
saw him coming.

"Stay here, girls, until I speak to Uncle Fred."

She ran to the wall and climbed up at the spot where she had first seen
her new friends.

Mr. Dawson crossed in answer to her call.

After a few moments' conversation she returned to the girls, saying
gaily:--

"It's all right, he says we may have it!"

They gazed upon her wonderingly.

"What do you mean?"

Alene laughed.

"There, I forgot it was a secret. Well, here goes--All the horses are
out at the farm now, but Uncle Fred says we may have the surrey if Mat
can get a horse!"

Laura clapped her hands, and Ivy, who had been unusually silent and
depressed in the last half hour, brightened and her face was fairly
radiant with joy as she cried: