of birds and croon
of bees in the old orchard, windy pipings on the hills, sunset behind
the pines, limpid dews filling primrose cups, crescent moons through
darklings boughs, soft nights alight with blinking stars. We enjoyed
all these boons, unthinkingly and light-heartedly, as children do. And
besides these, there was the absorbing little drama of human life
which was being enacted all around us, and in which each of us played
a satisfying part--the gay preparations for Aunt Olivia's mid-June
wedding, the excitement of practising for the concert with which our
school-teacher, Mr. Perkins, had elected to close the school year, and
Cecily's troubles with Cyrus Brisk, which furnished unholy mirth for the
rest of us, though Cecily could not see the funny side of it at all.

Matters went from bad to worse in the case of the irrepressible Cyrus.
He continued to shower Cecily with notes, the spelling of which showed
no improvement; he worried the life out of her by constantly threatening
to fight Willy Fraser--although, as Felicity sarcastically pointed out,
he never did it.

"But I'm always afraid he will," said Cecily, "and it would be such a
DISGRACE to have two boys fighting over me in school."

"You must have encouraged Cyrus a little in the beginning or he'd never
have been so persevering," said Felicity unjustly.

"I never did!" cried outraged Cecily. "You know very well, Felicity
King, that I hated Cyrus Brisk ever since the very first time I saw his
big, fat, red face. So there!"

"Felicity is just jealous because Cyrus didn't take a notion to her
instead of you, Sis," said Dan.

"Talk sense!" snapped Felicity.

"If I did you wouldn't understand me, sweet little sister," rejoined
aggravating Dan.

Finally Cyrus crowned his iniquities by stealing the denied lock of
Cecily's hair. One sunny afternoon in school, Cecily and Kitty Marr
asked and received permission to sit out on the side bench before
the open window, where the cool breeze swept in from the green fields
beyond. To sit on this bench was always considered a treat, and was only
allowed as a reward of merit; but Cecily and Kitty had another reason
for wishing to sit there. Kitty had read in a magazine that sun-baths
were good for the hair; so both she and Cecily tossed their long braids
over the window-sill and let them hang there in the broiling sun-shine.
And while Cecily sat thus, diligently working a fraction sum on her
slate, that base Cyrus