ing at
her belt, and pulled out a sheet of rough, brown paper, on which was
drawn the picture of a girl bound fast to a tree by ropes that went
round and round her body, while a band of Indians danced a savage war
dance around her. Underneath was printed in the same large red letters
as those which adorned the outside of the envelope:

BE DOWN ON THE DOCK AT SUNDOWN
WITHOUT FAIL PREPARED TO UNDERGO
THE ORDEAL WHICH ALL
DWELLERS IN THE ALLEY MUST
SUFFER BEFORE BEING WELCOMED
INTO THE INNER
CIRCLE OF ALLEY
SPIRITS.

WARNING: MENTION NOT THIS SUMMONS
TO A LIVING SOUL OR AWFUL
WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES.

SIGNED: THE TERRIBLE TWELVE.
P.S. BRING YOUR BATHING SUITS.

"What on earth?" cried Hinpoha in bewilderment.

"It's the Alley Initiation!" exclaimed Sahwah. "I heard someone asking
when it was going to be. Mary Sylvester and Jo Severance and several
more of the old girls were talking about it while they were in the water
today. It seems that the girls who have lived in the Alley before
always hold an initiation for the new girls before they let them in on
their larks."

"I wonder what they're going to do to us," mused Hinpoha. "That advice
to bring your bathing suit sounds suspicious to me."

"Do you suppose they're going to throw us into the river?" asked Agony.

"Nonsense," replied Sahwah. "Half the new girls in the Alley can't swim.
Dr. Grayson wouldn't allow it, anyway. He made a girl come out of the
water during swimming hour this morning for trying to duck another girl.
They'll just make us ridiculous, that's all."

"Well, whatever they ask us to do, let's not make a fuss," said Hinpoha.
"Here comes Miss Judy. Put that letter out of sight and act perfectly
unconcerned."

Sahwah whipped the envelope into her suitcase and flung herself down on
her bed; the others followed her example; and when a moment later Miss
Judy stepped into the tent and looked quizzically at the trio she found
them apparently wrapped in placid slumber.

Shortly before seven that evening, when the Avenue girls were dancing in
the bungalow, Sahwah and Hinpoha and Agony quietly detached themselves
from the group and slipped down to the dock to find Katherine and
Oh-Pshaw and Jean Lawrence already down there, swinging their feet over
the end of the pier and waiting for something to happen. Down the
hillside other forms were stealing; Migwan, and Gladys, an