I scrutinized the stump, and
God had been good to me! He had put a little black ring around the
heart! It is a _sign!_ ... I must turn over that tree and examine--!"

"Not _now_, dear; you're all upset--"

"Yes, now--this instant!"

"But it's all lighted--the children are all here! We must wait until
they have finished and gone into the dining-room, and then you can do
anything you want to. But not just now--"

And again Mrs. Guilford led her distraught sister down the hall and into
the side room.

It was the firm conviction of all the children save two, that the tall
lady in black was crazy (a conviction of which some of them were never
able to rid themselves in after years), and they did not hesitate to
whisper about it among themselves.

The two who entertained no doubt as to the soundness of her mind were
Sube and Nancy. To them her verbal wanderings about the little black
ring had been perfectly lucid. But no look of understanding passed
between them. In fact, their eyes did not squarely meet again during the
entire evening, although neither one was for an instant unaware of the
other's exact location.

Observing that Sube was standing by the tree, Nancy made her way thither
by devious wanderings; but when she reached the tree she found that Sube
had moved over by the doorway leading into the hall. She started in that
direction, but before she had come up to him, the first call to supper
was sounded; and by the time that she had reached the dining-room she
found him securely seated between Cottontop Sigsbee and Stucky Richards.

In some mysterious way an exchange of seats was effected between Nancy
and Cottontop; but no sooner had Cottontop yielded his seat to the
hostess than Sube had slipped quickly across the room and hauled
Biscuit Westfall from his seat, of which he at once took possession with
the announcement that he and Biscuit had also swapped.

This was an act of plain insanity; for of course nothing remained for
Biscuit to do except to go over and seat himself beside Nancy. It would
have been difficult to decide which Sube would have kicked the harder,
himself or Biscuit, had he been given a "free kick" at that moment. But
he had no such good fortune.

Instead, he was compelled to sit idly by and look helplessly on at
Biscuit and Nancy in close and apparently very intimate conversation. Of
course Sube had no way of knowing that Nancy was simply assuring Biscuit
that she would at once effect a