be sure to find their way. Betty charged high
for her wares; but, as she was always obliging in the matter of credit,
the thoughtless girls cared very little that they paid double the shop
prices for Betty's cakes. The best girls in the school, certainly, never
went to Betty; but Annie Forest, Susan Drummond, and several others had
regular accounts with her, and few days passed that their young faces
would not peep over the paling and their voices ask:

"What have you got to tempt me with to-day, Betty?"

It was, however, in the matter of stolen picnics, of grand feasts in the
old attic, etc., etc., that Betty was truly great. No one so clever as
she in concealing a basket of delicious eatables, no one knew better what
schoolgirls liked. She undoubtedly charged her own prices, but what she
gave was of the best, and Betty was truly in her element when she had an
order from the young ladies of Lavender House for a grand secret feast.

"You shall have it, my pretties--you shall have it," she would say,
wrinkling up her bright blue eyes, and smiling broadly. "You leave it to
Betty, my little loves; you leave it to Betty."

On the occasion of the picnic to the fairies' field Betty had, indeed,
surpassed herself in the delicious eatables she had provided; all had
gone smoothly, the basket had been placed in a secure hiding-place under
the thick laurel. It was to be fetched away by Betty herself at an early
hour on the following morning.

No wonder Susan was perplexed as she paced about and pretended to warm
herself. It was a June evening, but the weather was still a little cold.
Susan remembered now that Betty had not come to her favorite station at
the stile for several days. Was it possible that the old woman was ill?
As this idea occurred to her, Susan became more alarmed. She knew that
there was very little chance of the basket remaining long in concealment.
Rover might any day remember his pleasant picnic with affection, and drag
the white basket from under the laurel-bush. Michael the gardener would
be certain to see it when next he cleaned up the back avenue. Oh, it was
more than dangerous to leave it there, and yet Susan knew of no better
hiding-place. A sudden idea came to her; she pulled out her pretty little
watch, and saw that she need not return to the house for another
half-hour. "Suppose she ran as fast as possible to Betty's little cottage
and begged of the old woman to come by the first light in the morni