chuckle.

"Well, don't tell us about it," said Grace hastily. "I'm trying hard to
love you, Mollie, but I can't stand everything--"

"Oh, but it's a joke on me this time," Mollie reassured her, and Grace sat
back with a sigh of relief.

"It happened while we were at Pine Island," Mollie continued with a
chuckle. "I was sitting in the living room playing the piano--"

"Or trying to?" interrupted Grace.

"Or trying to," agreed Mollie with perfect good-nature. "You know my
repertoire consists of two pieces, and I was humming one of them as I
played.

"Frank and Roy were sitting on the steps of the porch outside and I heard
Frank say to Roy very earnestly:

"'Do you know, I think Mollie would have a wonderful voice if she would
only have it cultivated.'"

"Goodness, I thought--" began Grace, but the Little Captain very hastily
pinched her into silence.

"Evidently they thought I couldn't hear them," Mollie continued. "But they
were mistaken, for I heard Roy answer pityingly, 'Say, old man, I've heard
of love being blind before, but here's a case where the poor little god is
deaf.'"

"Mollie," cried Amy, shocked, while the others laughed merrily, "what did
Frank say? Did he stand for that?"

"Most decidedly not," chuckled Mollie. "The last I saw of them, Frank was
leaping a fence, hanging on to Roy's coat tails. It was awfully funny. I
think I laughed for an hour afterward,"

"It was a wonder there was enough of poor Roy left to come home," giggled
Betty. "Frank isn't what you might call gentle, when his temper is
roused."

"Oh, I believe I know when that was now!" exclaimed Grace, with sudden
animation. "It must have been that evening when I was baking biscuits and
I looked out of the window and saw Roy. He looked like a tramp, hair all
disheveled and face as red as a beat.

"I called to him and asked him if he'd been in a fight or something, and
he just got redder than ever and backed off into the woods.

"I concluded he'd gone suddenly and violently insane, and as the aroma of
nearly burned biscuits filled the air I promptly forgot all about him."

Mollie chuckled.

"There was probably a very good reason for his _backing_ off," she said.
"I shouldn't wonder if after that he kept his meditations to himself."

"Yes," said Grace, with gentle malice, "I've long since concluded that
it's better to keep still about personal matters, no matter what you
think."

"Well, perhaps you have," said gentle Amy w