one. There will be an outdoor fireplace on the west side also, and I
know you will enjoy this."

Enjoy it? Kit stared ahead of her at the shady lawn. Miss Daphne was
bending over nasturtium beds gathering the black seeds, but instead, Kit
saw in a vision ahead a great hickory fire burning in the outdoor veranda
fireplace with the mystery of the night crooning low over the sleeping
hills. Her mother's letter came next. Kit read it with delight. She could
tell just exactly the mood the mother bird was in when she wrote, just how
her conscience pricked her for having been a party to Kit's plan.

"Of course, while the Dean's letter was very nice, still I am sure he felt
'put upon,' as Cousin Roxy would say. I am ever so sorry that we did not
write sooner, and tell them that you were coming. It rests with you now,
Kit, to make yourself so adaptable that they will forget all about the boy
they wanted. I have no objection to your staying for the winter term at
Hope College. Between ourselves, dear, our plans are a little unsettled
here. Father is certain that the house will be ready for us this winter,
but you know we have kept from him any worry about financial matters, and
I am afraid he figures on a wider latitude in expense than we can afford.
At the little farm here, and with you and Jean both away we could manage
very well. In order to rebuild at all, we had to part with some securities
which I had always hoped to save for you girls. It will be sad, won't it,
if the royal princesses have to be launched without wedding chests and
dowries?

"Make all the friends that you possibly can among your college mates. You
won't realize it now, but so many of these friendships become precious
lifelong ones. Billie is leaving this week for school. You remember Mr.
Howard, who came to look after our trees? He has been staying up at the
Judge's, and took a great interest in Billie. Instead of going back to
Blackwood Hall, Billie is going on to a school in Virginia, not far from
Washington, that Mr. Howard suggested sending him to. He is a great
believer in the value of environment that is associated with historic
traditions."

Kit read this last over twice, but could not agree with it at all. She had
always liked the pioneer outlook, the longing to break new trails, the
starting of little colonies in clearings of one's own making. If there was
an ivy around her castle, she wanted the joy of planting it herself, and
seeing it grow fr