'phone for you, Jo; Miss
Martin says hurry"--

Judging by the speed with which Josephine vanished down the corridor she
was anxious to oblige Miss Martin.

The half-past two bell rang and Nancy and Judith went off to music
lessons without deciding anything about the costume for the party, and
when Judith came upstairs after an early dinner she was still as
undecided as ever. The corridor was as busy as the proverbial beehive,
for the "borrowing-rule" had been suspended for the day, and everybody
seemed to be making the most of the opportunity.

Judith was besieged with requests the moment she appeared.

"I bag your white slippers, Judy, if _you_ don't want them," called
Rosamond.

"And I want your black beads--"

"Your blue scarf, please, Judy," called Catherine from her room, "I'll
be awfully careful of it."

Squeals of delight came from the various rooms where tryings-on were
proceeding. "Every one seems happy but me," thought Judith dismally when
the borrowers had departed.

What would a Southern costume be like, anyway? Africa? No that would be
too hard and she hadn't the least idea how the Australians dressed.
South America? India? Was India south? No, it couldn't be, because she
had heard Audrey Green of East House describing a perfectly sweet Hindu
costume which her roommate was going to wear. Southerner? How stupid of
her! Why not a Virginian lady of the Colonial period? Why not? That's
settled. Now as to the how; whom could she ask? But no sympathetic
friend presented herself and Judith again began to feel aggrieved.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Josephine excitedly rushing into the room.
"Jim--my brother--arrives to-night from Alberta and he'll call here
to-morrow first thing. I believe," she added in a lower, confidential
tone, "I believe I must have been a bit homesick and didn't know
it--there'll be letters and messages, and probably a box, too, from
home. Oh, I can hardly wait till to-morrow! Jim says Mother is all
right, though she misses me dreadfully--you see our nearest neighbour
lives fifty miles away, and sometimes she doesn't see a white woman all
winter."

"Fifty miles!" repeated Judith in amazement.

"Yes, we have to have a lot of land for the horses, and sometimes Dad is
away for several days visiting the outlying parts and Mother gets pretty
lonely."

"You're joking, Jo--your father couldn't spend several days travelling
on his own farm."

"Not farm, Judibus," said Josephine, laugh