ur girls flew back to their dormitory in
great haste, especially as Mrs. Best, disturbed by the noise, had opened
her door and come on to the scene in a pink-and-gray dressing-gown. They
were followed, however, by both Matron and Nurse, and forced to give an
explanation of their extraordinary conduct.

"I couldn't sleep for the wind, so I put on my felt slippers and my
cloak, and went downstairs for a biscuit," declared Nurse Warner, whose
voice sounded rather aggrieved. "I didn't think I should disturb
anybody."

"You girls are the limit with your silly notions!" said Mrs. Best,
really angry for once. "If you fill your heads with absurd ideas about
burglars before you go to sleep, of course you can imagine anything. If
I hear any more talking in No. 2 another night after the lights are out,
I shall separate you, and send each of you to sleep in another
dormitory. I'll not have the house upset like this! So you know what to
expect. Are you all in your beds? Then not another word!"

"It's very uncomfy without my pillow!" whispered naughty Verity, in
distinct disobedience to this mandate, as the door of Mrs. Best's room
closed. "Dare I go and fetch it?"

"Sh! Sh! No!"

"I know what we'll give Nursie for a Christmas present," murmured Fil
softly. "A nice ornamental tin box of biscuits to keep in her bedroom.
She shan't get hungry in the night again, poor dear!"

"_Sh! Sh! Will_ you go to sleep!" warned Ingred emphatically.

CHAPTER X

The Whispering Stones

The Saxon family had squeezed themselves and certain of their
possessions into the little home at Wynch-on-the-Wold, and while flowers
still bloomed in the garden and apples hung ripe on the trees it seemed
a kind of continuation of their summer holiday; but as the novelty wore
off, and stormy weather came on, their altered circumstances began to be
more evident. Most of us can make a plucky fight against fate at
first--there had been something rather romantic about retiring to the
bungalow--but the plain prose of the proceeding was yet to come, and
there were certainly many disadvantages to be faced. Mr. Saxon was
worried about business affairs; he was a proud, sensitive man, and felt
it a great "come down" to be obliged to resign Rotherwood, and the
social position it had stood for, and confess himself to the world as
one of the "newly poor." It was humiliating to have to walk or take a
tram where he had formerly used his car in fulfilling his profe