y the boy who had them."

"I think I can understand that."

"Can you? I didn't know little girls ever had such days."

"I've had a few, but I think they were never given me. They were usually
stolen, and so were doubly precious."

Brockway laughed. "Suppose we call this a stolen day, and try to make it
as much like the others as we can. Shall we?"

"It's a bargain," she said, impulsively.

"From this minute, I am any irresponsible age you please; and you--you
are to do nothing whatever that you meant to do. Will you agree to
that?"

"Gladly," Brockway assented, the more readily since his plans for the
day had been so recently demolished and rebuilt. "We'll go where we
please, and do as we like; and for this one day nobody shall say
'Don't!'"

She laughed with him, and then became suddenly grave. "It's no use; we
can't do it," she said, with mock pathos; "the 'ancients and invalids'
won't let us."

"Yes, they will," Brockway asserted, cheerfully; "Burton will take care
of them--that's what he's here for. Moreover, I shall take it upon
myself to abolish the perversities, animate or inanimate."

"Please do. And if Mrs. Burton scold me----"

"She'd better not," said Brockway, with much severity. "If she does,
I'll tell tales out of school and give her something else to think
about."

"Could you?"

"You would better believe it; she is trembling in her shoes this blessed
minute for fear I may. But you would have to stand by me."

"I? Well, I've promised, you know. What place is this?"

The train had entered the great gateway in Table Mountain, and was
clattering past the Golden smelting works.

"It is Golden--you remember, don't you?" And then Brockway bethought him
of something. "Will you excuse me a minute, while I get off and speak to
the agent?"

"Certainly," said Gertrude; and when the train skirted the high
platform, Brockway sprang off and ran quickly to the telegraph office.
The operator was just coming out with a freshly written message in his
hand.

"Hello, Fred," he said; "didn't know you were on. Do you happen to know
a Miss Gertrude Vennor? She's with John Burton's party."

"Yes," said Brockway, tingling to get hold of the message before Burton
should come along.

"All right; give her this, will you? I can't leave that blessed wire a
minute."

Brockway thrust the telegram into his pocket, dodged around the throng
of station loungers, and won back to the rear platform of the
observati