e? By this speech you may know she was a
very confident person, not easily persuaded that her own way was not
always best. She not only had her hair bobbed in the approved manner
of that season, but her mother was ill-advised enough to allow her to
wear long, dangling earrings, and she favored a manner of walking
(when she did not forget) that Burd Alling called "the serpentine
slink." Belle thought she was wholly grown up.

"They couldn't throw out my idea," repeated Belle.

"What is it, Belle, honey?" asked one of her chums.

"She can't tell," put in Amy, who was present. "That is one of the
rules."

"Pooh!" scoffed Belle. "Guess I'll tell if I want to. That won't
invalidate my chances. They will be only too glad to use my idea."

"Dear me," drawled Amy, laughing. "You're just as sure as sure, aren't
you?"

Miss Seymour, the girls' English teacher in school, came to the door
of the committee room with a paper in her hand. A semblance of order
immediately fell upon the company.

"We have just now decided upon the two suggestions of all those placed
in the box, the two prize ideas. And both are very good, I must say.
Chippendale Truro! Is Chip here?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Chip, who was a snub-nosed boy whose chums declared
"all his brains were in his head."

"Chip, I think your idea is very good. You will be interested to learn
what it is, girls. Chip suggests that all the waitresses and
saleswomen at the lawn party wear masks--little black masks as one
does at a masquerade party. That will make them stand out from the
guests. And the committee are pleased with the idea. Chip gets the
tennis racket in Mr. Brill's show-window."

"Cricky, Chip! how did you come to think of that?" demanded one of the
boys in an undertone.

"Well, they are going to be regular road-agents, aren't they?" asked
the snub-nosed boy. "They take everything you have in your pockets at
those fairs. They ought to wear masks--and carry guns, too. Only I
didn't dare suggest the guns."

Amid the muffled explosion of laughter following this statement, Miss
Seymour began speaking again:

"The girl's prize--the sports coat at Letterblair's--goes to Jessie
Norwood, on whose father's lawn the bazaar is to be held on the
afternoon and evening of the Fourth of July."

At this announcement Belle Ringold actually cried out: "What's that?"

"Hush!" commanded Miss Seymour. "Jessie has suggested that a tent be
erected--her father has one stored in