d to keep up with the
meaning--to read the handwriting of fire and give the interpretation
thereof.

Old Round-top had seized the shining hour. The Henkyl Hunters were no
"chuffs", no conundrums, with the strange riddle of incivility up a
sleeve.

"'Invite them to the picnic--and don't forget the cocoa!'" Tanpa
laughed. "Just like them! We did promise to lay in a fresh supply of
sundries, as we pass through the town to-night--if there's still a store
left open. And that reminds me, girlies, that it's getting late. We have
no right to keep the birds out of bed any longer, demoralizing the
feathered world."

But the Lightning had recovered its morale, its memory, prompted by a
Morse code-card excitedly snatched from a green breast pocket and
explored by the light of the dwindling torch.

"Invite--your--friends--to--our--d-a-n-c-e," slowly spelled out Tomoke,
giving back diamond for diamond.

She was beginning upon the word "A-ll", but the pine-knot winked itself
out in a dazzlement on "dance,"--in an effulgence of sparks that fell
like golden rain upon the hearts of the visitors.

"Will it--will it be an outdoor affair--a piazza dance?" gasped Una.
"Oh-h! I do love.... Now! Andrew!" She broke off suddenly at the
chauffeur's declaration that it was "magerful" show, "yon fire-talk",
that he never expected to see the like carried on by "tids o' lassies",
but that it really wasn't in him to stand there any longer rolling his
eyes over it, like a duck in thunder. "Now, Andrew!" reasoned his
employer's young daughter. "You know that you've driven my father and
mother, and Professor Lorry, too, to a dinner-party, where the professor
is to give a talk about the Thunder Bird--and oh! may its fiery tale be
a long one to-night--you won't have to fetch them home for another two
hours yet."

"Hoot! It's saft as peppermint. I am wi' ye, Miss Una, but it's time for
all lassies to gang home," returned the other with paternal insistence,
lifting his cap in questioning appeal to the Guardian.

"He's right, dear. _We_ must be starting for the home camp,
too--just as soon as we've seen that our fire is thoroughly
extinguished," said Tanpa. "Our paths don't lie in the same direction,
but we hope they often will in future. As to the dance, it will be a
piazza affair, if the evening is fine--the festive wind-up of an
exciting day, our White Birch anniversary which we celebrate with rites
and symbolic dancing, in honor of our patron,