was slowly disappearing.

In the course of time, the children taught Maida the secret language
of the W.M.N.T.'s. They could hold long conversations that were
unintelligible to anybody else. When at first they used it in fun
before Maida, she could not understand a word. After they had
explained it to her, she wondered that she had ever been puzzled.

"It's as easy as anything," Rosy said. "You take off the first sound
of a word and put it on the end with an _ay_ added to it like
MAN--an-may. BOY--oy-bay. GIRL--irl-gay. When a word is just one sound
like I or O, or when it begins with a vowel like EEL or US or OUT,
you add _way_, like I--I-way. O--O-way. EEL--eel-way. US--us-way.
OUT--out-way."

Thus Maida could say to Rosie:

"Are-way ou-yay oing-gay o-tay ool-schay o-tay ay-day?" and mean
simply, "Are you going to school to-day?"

And sometimes to Maida's grief, Rosie would reply roguishly:

"O-nay I-way am-way oing-gay o-tay ook-hay ack-jay ith-way
Arthur-way."

Billy Potter was finally invited to join the W.M.N.T.'s too. He
never missed a meeting if he could possibly help it.

"Why do you call Maida, 'Petronilla'?" Dicky asked him curiously one
day when Maida had run home for more paper.

"Petronilla is the name of a little girl in a fairy-tale that I read
when I was a little boy," Billy answered.

"And was she like Maida?" Arthur asked.

"Very."

"How?" Rosie inquired.

"Petronilla had a gold star set in her forehead by a fairy when she
was a baby," Billy explained. "It was a magic star. Nobody but
fairies could see it but it was always there. Anybody who came
within the light of Petronilla's star, no matter how wicked or
hopeless or unhappy he was, was made better and hopefuller and
happier."

Nobody spoke for an instant.

Then, "I guess Maida's got the star all right," Dicky said.

Billy was very interested in the secret language. At first when they
talked this gibberish before him, he listened mystified. But to
their great surprise he never asked a question. They went right on
talking as if he were not present. In an interval of silence, Billy
said softly:

"I-way onder-way if-way I-way ought-bay a-way uart-quay of-way
ice-way-eam-cray, ese-thay ildren-chay ould-way eat-way it-way."

For a moment nobody could speak. Then a deafening, "es-yay!" was
shouted at the top of four pairs of lungs.

CHAPTER X: PLAY

But although the W.M.N.T.'s worked very