ing dervish.

Mrs. Gray laughed.

"Yes, indeed, my dears, America is a splendid country and every American
should be proud to say so."

"And Oakdale is one of the nicest places in America," piped up Anne.

"Hurrah for Oakdale!" cried Hippy again.

"And Oakdale High School!" added Anne.

"And hurrah for the sponsor of the freshman class!" exclaimed Grace.

Whereupon they formed a circle, with Mrs. Gray in the middle, and danced
about her laughing and singing:

"Hurrah for Mrs. Gray!"

The pretty, little old lady beamed happily upon her adopted family, as
she called them.

"My darling children!" she cried. "Kiss me good night, every one of you,
and we'll all go up to our beds."

CHAPTER XIV

A MIDNIGHT ALARM

The dry, cold air of the outdoors, and the warm fires inside the old
house, certainly had the effect of making a very sleepy crowd of boys
and girls who were not sorry, after all, to turn in early.

Grace and Anne occupied a room together so large that it could easily
have been turned into two apartments and each have been the size of
ordinary bedrooms.

"I'm glad our beds are close together, anyway," said Grace. "The rest of
the furniture in this room seems to be miles apart."

Mrs. Gray's room was just in front; Nora and Jessica were in a smaller
one back of theirs, and across the hall were the boys' rooms.

"Isn't it a wonderful old house?" replied Anne. "I never slept in such a
big room in all my life. And how kind Mrs. Gray is! There is nothing she
hasn't remembered."

Each girl had found on her bed a pretty dressing gown of silk and wool
and beside it a pair of bedroom slippers. There was a bowl of fruit on a
table, and just before they dropped off to sleep a maid brought in a
tray of glasses with a pitcher of hot milk.

"Mrs. Gray says this will warm you up before you go to bed," explained
the maid.

"Dear, sweet Mrs. Gray," continued Anne, as she curled up on a rug
before the fire to sip the warm drink, "she has planned so many things
for this party. I am so sorry she has been disappointed."

"He's not a bit like her, Anne," replied her friend, not caring to
mention names. "I do wish she had never asked him."

"My only hope," said Anne, "is that we will all seem so young and
childish to him that he will get bored and leave."

"Well, just strictly between us and as man to man, as David is always
saying, don't you think he is horrid? He has no manners at all, and it's
hard