it, Kitty? First you want it to rain, and
then when you can't make it do that, you begin to moan about the length
of the day before us."

"All wrong," Vera spoke up suddenly. "She is merely thinking of that
dear, cross-eyed boatman at Avalon. You know he promised to give us a
free ride to the Marine Gardens this morning, and here we all came away
and dragged Tabitha with us. Shame on us! What could we be thinking
about!"

Tabitha wisely joined in the laugh which followed this sally, and sent
a pillow flying after her tormentor, who had made a wild dash for the
hall. "No, sir, I'm not bemoaning my fate," she vigorously denied,
with her mouth full of pins. "I know we shall have a splendid time at
the ranch. Only it seems as if vacation had only just begun, instead
of being nearly ended; and the day looks so cloudy and gray that it
doesn't seem like a fitting climax for our lovely two weeks at
Catalina."

"It is too bad that you got cheated out of all the fun this summer,"
Myra sympathized heartily. "But just you wait until the day is done
before you say it is not a fitting climax-- Gracious Caesar! Here's
one of the autos already! Surely they can't be coming so soon! What
time is it, anyway?"

"Half-past six," Gloriana answered, glancing at an open watch that lay
on the library table.

"Half-past nothing!" cried Vera, tumbling hastily into the room with
her eyes as big as saucers. "It is almost eight o'clock!"

"You are joking!" cried the rest of the group in wild alarm.

"Am not! True as you're alive, the kitchen clock says a quarter of
eight o'clock."

"Oho!" murmured Myra guilty. "I--I--really, I forgot----"

"Forgot what?" they demanded, as she doubled up and shrieked with
laughter.

"I--I must have set all the watches in the crowd behind time," she
managed to explain at length.

"When?"

"Last night."

"What for?"

"Just a joke."

"A joke? I can't see any joke about that!" spluttered Jessie
indignantly. "Did you think we wanted to go for a forty-mile auto ride
on empty stomachs? I'm as hungry as a bear this minute."

"I am awfully sorry," cried Myra penitently, sobering at the
realization of just what would be the outcome of her joke. "I meant to
set them two hours ahead, so you would all get up at daybreak and be
ready long before the autos came."

"Just like you!" they exclaimed, half amused, half provoked. "What are
you going to do about it now?"

"What can we do? T