so they will keep all
fresh and nice."

"Yes; do hurry back," begged Jasper. So Polly, with a merry nod, raced
off to the corner where the girls were drawn up in a knot, impatiently
waiting for her.

Every bit of the fuss and parade in getting the big company started--for
all the scholars went to the annual picnic--was a special delight to the
girls. The only trouble was that the seats were not all end ones, while
the favorite places up by the driver were necessarily few in each
vehicle.

"Come on, Polly," screamed Alexia. Everybody had agreed that she should
have one of these choice positions because of her lame arm, which Dr.
Fisher had said must be carried in its sling this day. So there she was,
calling lustily for Polly Pepper, and beating the cushion impatiently
with her well hand. "Oh, _do_ hurry up!"

Polly, down on the ground in a swarm of girls, shook her head. "No," her
lips said softly, so that no one but Alexia, who was leaning over for
that purpose, could possibly hear, "ask Cathie."

"Oh bother!" exclaimed Alexia, with a frown. Then she smothered it up
with a "Come, Polly," very persuasively.

"Can't," said Polly; "I'm going back here." And she moved down to the
end of the barge.

"Then I'm going back too." Alexia gave a frantic dive to get down from
the barge.

Miss Salisbury saw it; and as she had planned to give Alexia just that
very pleasure of riding on the front seat, she was naturally somewhat
disturbed. "No, no, my dear," seeing Alexia's efforts to get down, "stay
where you are."

"Oh dear me!" Alexia craned her long neck around the side of the
vehicle, to spy Polly's movements. "I don't want to be mewed up here,"
she cried discontentedly. But Miss Salisbury, feeling well satisfied
with her plan for making Alexia happy, had moved off. And the babel and
tumult waged so high, over the placing of the big company, all the girls
chattering and laughing at once, that Alexia, call as she might, began
to despair of attracting Polly's attention, or Cathie's either for that
matter.

"You better set down," said the driver, an old man whom Miss Salisbury
employed every year to superintend the business, "and make yourself
comfortable."

"But I'm not in the least comfortable," said Alexia passionately, "and I
don't want to be up here. I want to get down."

"But you can't,"--the old man seemed to fairly enjoy her
dismay,--"'cause she, you know," pointing a short square thumb over his
shoulder