she sat at table between Reddy Johnson and Bernard Thomas, and every
time Carrie David or any one asked them if they wanted any more ice
cream, Bernie had put their saucers in his lap, and told Carrie that
they hadn't had any yet.

Len suddenly came up behind his sisters, frightening them with a deep
"Boo!" before he emerged from the blackness to join them.

"Javva good time?" he asked, adding carelessly, "I was there."

"Yes, you were!" Martie said incredulously. "You wish you were!"

"Honest, I was," Len said. "Honest I was, Lyd."

"Well, you weren't there until pretty late, Len," Lydia said in mild
disapproval.

"Lissun," Len suggested pleadingly. "Tell Pa I brought you girls home
from Hawkes's--go on! Lissun, Lyd, I'll do as much for you some time--"

"Oh, Len, how can I?" Lydia objected.

"Well, I went in, honest, early in the evening," the boy asserted
eagerly. "But I can't stand those boobs and roughnecks, so I went down
town for a while. Then I came back and waited until you girls came out
of the gate. I'll cross my heart and hope to die if I didn't!"

"If Pa asks me--" Lydia said inexorably.

For a few moments they all walked together in the dark. Then Len said
suddenly:

"Say, Mart, I saw Rod Parker to-night. He was down town, and he asked
me how my pretty sister was!"

"Did he?" Martie spoke carelessly, but her heart leaped.

"He talked a lot about you," went on Len, "he's going to call you up in
the morning about something."

"Oh--?" Martie mused. "I shouldn't wonder if it was about a dance we
were talking about," she said thoughtfully. She was quite acute enough
to see perfectly that Len was trying to enlist her silence in his cause
should their father make a general inquiry, and philosophical enough to
turn his mood to her own advantage. "Lissun, Len," said she, "if I try
to have a party you'll get the boys you know to come, won't you? There
are always too many girls, and I want it to go off nicely. You will,
won't you?"

"Sure I will," Len promised heartily. He and his sister perfectly
understood each other.

They all went quietly upstairs; Len to dreamless sleep, Sally to
thrilled memories of Joe--Joe--Joe, and Martie to shifting happy
thoughts of the evening and its little triumphs, thoughts that always
came back to Len's talk with Rodney. Rodney had asked Len for his
pretty sister.

Lydia lay wide awake for a long time. There was no doubt of it now; she
and her mother had told eac