ng from Mabel? I
could see you thought some one had made mischief."

"Elfreda Briggs, will you please tell me your exact method of
deduction!" exclaimed Grace in a half vexed tone. "Your ability for
'seeing things' is positively uncanny."

"There was nothing very uncanny about seeing you look ready to cry every
time Mabel's name was mentioned," retorted Elfreda. "We all knew that
you hadn't received a letter from her. Put two and two together, what is
the result? Ask me something harder. That's easy."

"I make my bow to you, most observing of all observers," laughed Grace.
"I have been worried over not receiving a letter from Mabel, but I
hadn't breathed it to any one. Come into the living room before
breakfast. No; let us have breakfast first. It is early yet and we shall
have time to read the letter afterward in my room. Then Anne and Miriam
can hear it, too. Here they come, the slow pokes."

"A dillar, a dollar, a ten-o'clock scholar,
Oh, why did you come so soon?"

chanted Elfreda as Anne, followed by Miriam, appeared at the head of the
stairs.

"A ten-minutes-to-eight-o'clock scholar," calmly corrected Miriam. "We
are early, but you and Grace are distressingly early. I suppose you
found the fabled worm."

"Here it is." Grace held up the letter. "If you are pleasant and
respectful to us during breakfast, I will invite you to my room to hear
it read."

"Your half of the room," reminded Anne, with emphasis.

"I beg your pardon, my half of the room," corrected Grace. "I might
lease your half for the occasion, then I could turn you out if you
proved a disturbing factor."

"But I could refuse to lease my half," declared Anne.

"Then I should be obliged to turn you out, at any rate. I am much
stronger than you."

"It sounds like a discussion between the March Hare and the Mad Hatter,
doesn't it?" commented Elfreda.

"It has a true Alice in Wonderland tang," agreed Miriam solemnly. "In
the meantime I am growing hungrier. On to breakfast!"

After breakfast, the quartette lost no time in going upstairs to Grace's
room to listen to Mabel's letter. Grace opened it, glanced hastily over
the first page, then read:

"MY DEAR GRACE:--

"Your faith in me as a correspondent must be shattered by this
time. I've intended to write, but my days and nights, too, have
been so crowded with work that I have almost forgotten that I am
entitled to a little recreation. I'll try not to let