burst into a peal of laughter. She had a sense of humour which
was startling. It was the one thing which environment had not been
able to subdue, or even produce the effect of submission. Annie
Eustace was easily amused. She had a scent for the humorous like a
hound's for game, and her laugh was irrepressible.

"What on earth are you laughing at now?" inquired Margaret Edes
irritably.

"I was thinking," Annie replied chokingly, "of some queer long-legged
birds I saw once in a cage in a park. I really don't know whether
they were ibises or cranes, or survivals of species, but anyway, the
little long-legged ones all walked just the same way in a file behind
a tall long-legged one, who walked precisely in the same way, and all
of a sudden, I seemed to see us all like that. Only you are not in
the least like that tall, long-legged bird, Margaret, and you are the
president of the Zenith Club."

Margaret surveyed Annie with cool displeasure. "I," said she, "see
nothing whatever to laugh at in the Zenith Club, if you do."

"Oh, Margaret, I don't!" cried Annie.

"To my mind, the Zenith Club is the one institution in this little
place which tends to advancement and mental improvement."

"Oh, Margaret, I think so too, you know I do," said Annie in a
shocked voice. "And my heart was almost broken because I had to miss
that last meeting on account of grandmother's having such a severe
cold."

"The last meeting was not very much to miss," said Margaret, for
Annie had again said the wrong thing.

Annie, however, went on eagerly and unconsciously. She was only aware
that she was being accused of disloyalty, or worse, of actually
poking fun, when something toward which she felt the utmost respect
and love and admiration was concerned.

"Margaret, you know," she cried, "you know how I feel toward the
Zenith Club. You must know what it means to me. It really does take
me out of my little narrow place in life as nothing else does. I
cannot tell you what an inspiration it really is to me. Oh, Margaret,
you know!"

Margaret nodded in stiff assent. As a matter of fact, she _did_ know.
The Zenith Club of Fairbridge did mean very much, very much indeed,
to little Annie Eustace. Nowhere else did she meet _en masse_ others
of her kind. She did not even go to church for the reason that her
grandmother did not believe in church going at all and wished her to
remain with her. One aunt was Dutch Reformed and the other Baptist;
and neit