nd started in
pursuit.

"You're always running away," he protested plaintively, when he overtook
her just a little way from the cottage, the owner of which had shown
them such generous hospitality.

Billie wrinkled up her nose in surprise.

"Running away?" she repeated wonderingly. "Why, Teddy, sometimes I
almost think you're foolish."

"That's what Mother says, only she's sure of it," said Teddy, with a wry
little grimace that made Billie laugh.

"Well, she ought to know better than I," she said demurely. "She's known
you longer."

"Not very much," Teddy retorted, opening the gate of the little picket
fence for her. "And, anyway, you haven't answered my question. What did
you run away for?"

"I didn't run away. I escaped," she explained, making a face at the
memory of the crowd. "I wonder what makes people so curious. I do
believe all a person would have to do to collect a crowd would be to
stand on a soap box and say, 'Isn't this beautiful weather?'"

"You bet. Especially if that person were you," said Teddy, and Billie
looked at him reproachfully.

As the two entered the hall they met the girls just coming down stairs.

They all went to the kitchen, where they found Mrs. Jenkins just
finishing a batch of golden brown crullers. She greeted the girls with a
beaming smile and insisted that Laura and Violet sit down while she got
them some breakfast.

"Why, you must be nearly starved," she said.

The girls protested that they were making her too much trouble, but she
gave them a cruller--"to stop their mouths," she said--and then set
cheerily to work to fry some more bacon and eggs, putting in a word now
and then and listening with a smile to the girls' merry chatter.

"You mustn't scold me when you're hungry," Billie said, and the gladness
in her voice made the girls look at her eagerly. "No, I'm not going to
tell you a word," she said firmly as they started to ply her with
questions. "Not till you've had some breakfast, anyway. Eat, pretty
creatures, eat."

Billie looked up at pretty Mrs. Jenkins and invitingly patted the empty
chair beside her.

"Sit down here, please," she coaxed. "I want you to hear this too."

"Now tell us," Laura commanded impatiently. "Why did you leave us asleep
and go out? And, oh, Billie! have you found your trunk?"

So Billie told the story while the girls listened open-eyed and
open-mouthed, completely forgetting their breakfast, which lay untouched
before them.

Mrs