lville, Allison and Kitty Walton. Gay carried a kodak,
and, from the remarks which floated over the hedge, it was evident they
were on their way to the orchard, to take a picture which would
illustrate the nonsense rhyme Kitty was chanting at the top of her
voice. They all repeated it after her in a singsong chorus, the four
pairs of feet keeping time in a soldierly tread as they marched past the
garden:

"Diddledy diddledy dumpty!
Three old maids in a plum-tree!
Half a crown to get them down,
Diddledy diddledy dumpty!"

Only in this instance Betty knew they were to be young maids instead of
old ones, all in a row on the limb of a plum-tree in the orchard, their
laughing faces thrust through the mass of snowy blossoms, as they waited
to be photographed.

"Diddledy diddledy dumpty"--the ridiculous refrain grew fainter and died
away as the girls passed on to the orchard, and Betty, smiling in
sympathy with their high spirits, ran down the stately marble steps to
the seat under the willow. It was so cool and shadowy down there that at
first it was a temptation just to sit and listen to the lap of the water
against the shore, but the very length of the shadows warned her that
the afternoon was passing, and after a few moments she fell to work
again with conscientious energy.

So deeply did she become absorbed in her task, she did not look up when
some one came down the steps behind her. It was an adoring little
freshman, who had caught the glimmer of her pink dress behind the tree.
The special-delivery letter she carried was her excuse for following.
She had been in a flutter of delight when Madame Chartley put it in her
hand, asking her to find Elizabeth Lewis and give it to her. But now
that she stood in the charmed presence, actually watching a poem in the
process of construction, she paused, overwhelmed by the feeling that she
was rushing in "where angels feared to tread."

Still, special-delivery letters are important things. Like time and tide
they wait for no man. Somebody might be dead or dying. So summoning all
her courage, she cleared her throat. Then she gave a bashful little
cough. Betty looked up with an absent-minded stare. She had been so busy
polishing a figure of speech to her satisfaction that she had forgotten
where she was. For an instant the preoccupied little pucker between her
eyebrows smote the timid freshman with dismay. She felt that she had
gained