y for our sewing bee," observed Mrs. Kingdon, smiling.
"What shall we begin on?"

"I'm wondering," said Pen meditatively, "if I hadn't better rig up
something evening-like for the dance to-night. If you could let me borrow
a white muslin curtain, I could easily rig it up into an impromptu dance
frock."

"Jo said he knew a man who turned an automobile into a lamp post," said
Betty.

"Oh, Betty!" laughed Pen, "maybe there is hope for a sinner to be turned
into a saint."

"We won't have to resort to curtains," said Mrs. Kingdon. "I have a white
satin skirt that is too short for me, and you can fashion a waist from a
piece of white muslin."

"And Doris left her white slippers that were too short for her," reminded
Betty.

"To think," meditated Pen presently as she deftly cut out a waist, "that
the thief should be making evening clothes, when it was only but yesterday
she was booked for bars instead of balls."

CHAPTER V

The two fiddlers were tuning their instruments when the party from the
house entered the rosy-lighted mess-hall. Jo started forward with an air
of assurance to claim Pen. When he beheld her, he stopped abruptly, lost
in admiration of the daintily clad young person whose Castle-cut locks had
been lured to a coiffure from which little tendrils escaped in babyish
rings.

Jakey Fourr, second violin, glimpsed her at the same time and noticed Jo's
hesitating halt.

"Ladies' Choice!" he shouted with a grin.

Jo looked at her expectantly but vainly; for she gladdened the pride of
Francis by choosing him as her partner. Betty and Billy mutually chose
each other. Mrs. Kingdon selected a newcomer. Agatha and the "other girl"
asked their particular friends, and the cook spitefully "sat it out." Pen
had to follow the prim little steps learned by Francis at a city dancing
school the winter before, and Sleepy Sandy thoughtfully timed his tune
thereto and shortened the number. Then Jo started for the belle of the
ball, but a youth in combination attire of hunter, cowboy and soldier was
ahead of him.

"Would you honor me, ma'am?" he asked.

She would and did, but she never learned the name of the wonderful dance
with which she "honored" him. It had been a case of "whither thou goest, I
will go."

Again Sleepy Sandy was considerate and cut this number short also.

Then Betty came running breathlessly up to Pen.

"Jo says if you don't dance with him this next time like you promised,
he'll drown