es and yawning in advance of the day's trade.

There were a few pedestrians headed uptown like herself. Some well-dressed
men seemed walking to business. A few neat shop girls were hurrying along
the pavement, too. But Helen, and the dogs in leash, had the avenue mostly
to themselves at this hour.

The sleepy maids, or footmen, or pages stared at the Western girl with
curiosity as she strode along. For, unlike many from the plains, Helen
could walk well in addition to riding well.

She reached the plaza, and crossing it, entered the park. The trees were
just coloring prettily. There were morning sounds from the not-far-distant
zoo. A few early nursemaids and their charges asleep in baby carriages,
were abroad. Several old gentlemen read their morning papers upon the
benches, or fed the squirrels who were skirmishing for their breakfasts.

Several plainly-dressed people were evidently taking their own
"constitutionals" through the park paths. Swinging down from the north
come square-shouldered, cleanly-shaven young men of the same type as Dud
Stone. Helen believed that Dud must be a typical New Yorker.

But there were no girls abroad--at least, girls like herself who had
leisure. And Helen was timid about making friends with the nursemaids.

In fact, there wasn't a soul who smiled upon her as she walked through the
paths. She would not have dared approach any person she met for any
purpose whatsoever.

"They haven't a grain of interest in me," thought Helen. "Many of them, I
suppose, don't even see me. Goodness, what a lot of self-centred people
there must be in New York!"

She wandered on and on. She had no watch--never had owned one. As she had
told Dud Stone, the stars at night were her clock, and by day she judged
the hour by the sun.

The sun was behind a haze now; but she had another sure timekeeper. There
was nothing the matter with Helen's appetite.

"I'll go back and join the family at breakfast," the girl thought. "I hope
they'll be nice to me. And poor Aunt Eunice dead without our ever being
told of it! Strange!"

She had come a good way. Indeed, she was some time in finding an outlet
from the park. The sun was behind the morning haze as yet, but she turned
east, and finally came out upon the avenue some distance above the gateway
by which she had entered.

A southbound auto-bus caught her eye and she signaled it. She not only had
brought her purse with her, but the wallet with her money was stuff