you and your father
before making a final decision."

"Then it ith all right," nodded Tommy confidently. "I'll make them let me
go anyway and--ith Harriet going?"

"Yes. I hope so."

"Doeth thhe know about it!"

"I have not spoken to Harriet about it. I had hoped to do so out here
to-day. That is why I proposed just now that we return to the village. We
shall have a chance to talk it over on the way back, when I will tell you
more about the proposed vacation."

"You thay my folkth know about it, Mith Elting?"

"Yes, dear."

"What did they thay?"

"That they thought you had better go to Narragansett with them, but that
if you insisted, they supposed you would have to go to the summer camp
with us," admitted the teacher with a tolerant smile.

Tommy twisted her face into a grimace.

"My folkth know what ith good for them," averred the little blonde girl.

"I am afraid, my dear, that you do not fully know what is good for
yourself," declared the teacher reprovingly. "You will have to obey the
rules when you get to camp, and they are quite strict. There are so many
girls there, that rather strict regulations have to be enforced. Every
girl is expected to live up to them. Failing to do so she undoubtedly
would be sent home."

"If they catch her," answered Tommy wisely. "You thay that Harriet
doethn't know about thith?"

"Not yet, Grace."

The girl reflected for a moment. They had started slowly toward the
village. All at once Tommy started down the road at top speed.

"Grace, Grace!" called Miss Elting.

"She's gone to tell Harriet what you have said," declared Margery.

A shade of annoyance passed over Miss Elting's face, quickly giving place
to an amused smile as she watched the light-footed Tommy speeding down the
road. Tommy whisked herself out of their sight in no time.

"Let us hurry on," urged the teacher. "Grace is sure to confuse the story
if she tries to tell it. Mrs. Burrell wished me to tell Harriet of the
camping trip that is before her."

The girls nodded their approval of the suggestion. Margery held her head a
little higher than usual. She wanted to impress upon Miss Elting the fact
that she was too dignified to do what Tommy had just done.

In the meantime Grace had continued her wild flight to the door of the
Burrell home into which she burst like a miniature cyclone. Her face was
flushed and her eyes sparkled. Her white dress was crumpled and stained
from sprawling on the hillside