gs--they're too stingy. I--I--I--don't care," she went on fairly in
hysterics, "he says I can't--I can't--keep--keep--a secret--but I've got
one and I won't tell it to anybody and I thought it up all myself and it
will surely make lots and lots and lots of people come and buy--and--and
he'll see if girls can do things." She was crying violently and shaking
like a leaf.

"What is the secret, Pepsy?" Aunt Jamsiah asked gently; "maybe I can
help you." "I won't tell--I won't tell anybody," Pepsy sobbed.

They were accustomed to these outbursts of her tense little nature and
said no more. Pepsy went up to her little room under the eaves, catching
each breath and trembling. No wonder they had not understood her at that
big brick orphan home. No wonder she had hated it. Little as she was,
she was too big for it.

She was in a mood to torment herself that night and she lay awake to
listen for that dread voice from across the woods. She lay on her left
side so they would have good luck next day. She was greatly overwrought
and when at last she did hear the sound, loud and heartless with its
sudden beginning and sudden end, it startled and terrorized her as if it
were indeed that gloomy, windowless equipage of the State Orphan Home,
coming to take her away.

She pushed her little fingers into her ears so that she could not hear
it. . . .

CHAPTER XX

AN OFFICIAL REBUKE

As for Pee-wee, his trouble was quite of another character. The dubious
outlook for their great enterprise did not submerge his buoyant spirit.
He had been the genius of many colossal enterprises, most of them
falling short of his glowing predictions, and his ingenious mind passed
from one thing to another with no lingering regrets.

He usually invested so much enthusiasm in organization that he had none
left for maintenance. He did not stick at anything long enough to be
disappointed in it; there were too many other worlds to be conquered.
His heart was no longer in the refreshment parlor and he was already
finding solace in becoming his own solitary customer, by eating the
taffy which he could not sell.

There had been so few things in Pepsy's poor little life that she had
put her whole intense little heart and soul in this and was resolved
that this hero from the great world of Bridgeboro should buy the tents
which in plain fact he had already forgotten about.

So it happened that while Pepsy was lying on her left side (o