ttle Junior A, wandering far afield in a game of
hide-and-seek, came upon them unawares; and returned to the safe
confines of the playground with frightened shrieks. Dark rumors began to
float about the school as to the aim and scope of the new society.
Suggestions ranged all the way from Indian squaws to Druid priestesses.

They almost met with disaster while acquiring the ingredients of the
oatmeal poultice. The oatmeal and lemon were comparatively easy; the
cook supplied them without much fuss. But she stuck at the honey. There
were jars and jars of strained honey in the storeroom; but the windows
were barred, and the key was in the bottom of Nora's pocket. Confronted
by the immediate necessity of becoming beautiful, they could not
placidly sit down for five days, and wait for the weekly shopping trip
to the village. Besides, with a teacher in attendance, there would be no
possible chance of making the purchase. Honey was a contraband article,
in the same class with candy and jam and pickles.

They discussed the feasibility of filing through the iron gratings, or
of chloroforming Nora and stealing the key, but in the end Patty
accomplished the matter by the use of a little simple blarney. She
dropped into the kitchen one afternoon with the plaintive admission that
she was hungry. Nora hastened to supply a glass of milk and a piece of
bread and butter, while Patty perched on a corner of the carving-table
and settled herself for conversation. The girls were not supposed to
visit the kitchen, but the law was never rigidly enforced. Nora was a
social soul and she welcomed callers. Patty praised the apple dumplings
of last night's dessert; progressed from that to a discussion of the
engaging young plumber who at the moment claimed all of Nora's thoughts;
then, by a natural transition, she passed to honey. Before she left, she
had obtained Nora's promise to substitute it for marmalade the next
morning at breakfast.

The members of the S. A. S. brought pin-trays to the meal, and
unobtrusively transferred a supply from their plates to their laps.

But even so, disaster still threatened. Patty had the misfortune to
collide with Evalina Smith in the upper hall, and she dropped her
pin-tray, honey-side down, in the middle of the rug. At the same
instant, Miss Lord bore down upon her from the end of the corridor.
Patty was a young person of resource; the emergency of the moment rarely
found her napping. She plumped down on he