picnic.

Neither spoke, and he reddened uncomfortably at her amused smile, as he
put them back into his pocket. At that moment, Rob turned toward them,
holding his new watch in his hand.

"I have just been showing Ranald the present Daddy gave me," he said to
Lloyd. "It reminded me that I hadn't told you,--I've put that same old
four-leaf clover into the back of this watch that I had in my silver
one. I wouldn't lose my luck by losing your hoodoo charm for anything in
the world."

At the sight of the clover Lloyd blushed violently. But it was not the
little dried leaf that deepened the quick colour in her cheeks. It was
the thought of the last time he had shown it to her, and the scene it
recalled at the churchyard stile, when Malcolm had begged for the tip of
a curl to carry with him always as a talisman; as a token that he was
really her knight, as he had been in the princess play, and that he
would come to her on some glad morrow.

"He'll have a pocket full of such talismans by the time he's through
college," she thought, recalling the kodak pictures she had just seen.
"I'm _mighty_ glad that I didn't give him one."

Over at The Beeches, Elise and her little friends had arranged to give a
Christmas play, so promptly at the hour agreed upon the party
"progressed" in Mrs. Walton's wake. There they found the third royal
welcome, and the gayest of entertainments. It had been an exciting day
for all of them, and, as Kitty expressed it, they were all wound up like
alarm-clocks. They would go off pretty soon with a br-r-r and a bang,
and then run down.

The play passed off without a hitch in the performance, and ended in a
blaze of spangles and red light, when the fairy queen, trailing off the
stage, went through the audience showering on her guests Christmas
roses, supposed to have been called to life by her magic wand, and
distributed as souvenirs of her skill.

Then somebody came up to Gay with her violin. With Allison to play her
accompaniments, she chose her sweetest pieces, and threw her whole soul
into the rendering of them. She was so grateful to these dear people
who had taken her in like one of themselves, and given her such a happy,
happy holiday-time that she did her best, and Gay's best on the violin
was a treat even to the musical critics in the company. Kitty was so
proud of her she could not help expressing her pleasure aloud, much to
Gay's embarrassment. To hide her confusion, she started a merry ji