n reply to their commiserations. "I'm going to have some more fun
before I pop off! Joking apart, I've had the time of my life here. It's
been blissful just reading and resting, with a big jug of lemonade at my
elbow."

"We've been talking about you downstairs. Didn't your ears burn?" asked
Jess.

"Not more than usual. What were you saying about poor little me?"

"We had a special meeting of the Camellia Buds, and passed a vote of
sympathy, for one thing. I suppose I ought to 'convey' it to you in the
orthodox fashion."

"Highly gratified, I'm sure," chirped Peachy. "How do I return thanks,
please? I can't get up in bed and bow. What next?"

"Well, the next is that nobody can think of anything original for the
Transition to do at the carnival, and everybody said 'Ask Peachy,' so
we've come to you for a suggestion."

"Whew! That's a big order," groaned the invalid. "We've had almost every
kind of stunt that's practically possible. What are the seniors getting
up this time?"

"Something musical, to judge from the practicing we hear. It sounds like
operetta. And the juniors are having a fairy play. Miss Morgan is
teaching them. What we want is something utterly and entirely
different."

"Exactly!" agreed Peachy, taking a drink of lemonade.

"If you don't have a brain-throb we shall have to descend to an ordinary
concert."

"Or a scene from Shakespeare."

"Or a _tableau vivant_."

"And those have been done simply dozens of times."

"I know," frowned Peachy. "We had 'The Trial Scene' from _The Merchant
of Venice_ ourselves last carnival. We couldn't give the same stunt
again. Oh, don't bother me! Let me think. How can I get ideas when
you're all talking at once?"

Peachy put her fingers in her ears and buried her head temporarily in
the pillow, from which she appeared to draw inspiration, for in a few
moments she sprang up with a bounce of rapture.

"Got it!" she announced cheerily. "Let's do a toy-shop. You shall all be
dressed up as toy animals and be wound up to work. Oh, I see ever such
possibilities. The seniors never had _that_ at any rate."

"Good!"

"It sounds prime!"

"What a mascot you are."

"Don't breathe a word outside the form," warned Peachy. "I'll plan it
all out and we'll have a rehearsal when I'm downstairs again. I guess
we'll give them a surprise. Hand me my writing-pad, somebody, and a
pencil. I want to get busy sketching costumes. I can see the whole thing
in my mind's eye and