d one. They aren't going to let me go back to school aftah the
holidays. The doctah says I am not strong enough, and it is such an
awful Dungeon of Disappointment that it just breaks my hah't to think
about it."

To Rob's consternation she laid her head down on old Belinda, who still
lay limply across her lap, and began to sob. He sat in embarrassed
silence for a moment, scarcely knowing her for the same little companion
whom he had taught to meet hurts like a boy. He remembered the many
times she had winked back the tears over the bruises and bumps and cuts
she had encountered in following his lead. He was bewildered by the
unfamiliar mood, and it hurt him to see her so grieved.

"There! there! Don't cry, Lloyd!" he begged, hurt by the sight of the
fair head bowed so dismally over the old doll. "I know how it would
knock me out to have to stop now, just when I've got into the swing of
things, so I know just how you feel. I'm mighty sorry."

Then, as the sobs continued: "I'd go off and whip somebody if it would
do any good, but it won't. You'll have to brace up as Ederyn did, and
you'll get out of your dungeon all right."

There was no answer. School was so very dear, and the disappointment so
very bitter. It had all surged over her again in a great wave. He tried
again.

"It's tough, I know, but it will be easier if you take it as all the
Lloyds have taken their troubles, with your teeth set and your head up.
Somehow, that's the way I've always thought you would take things. Don't
cry, Lloyd. Don't! It breaks me all up to see you this way, when you've
always been so game."

She straightened up and wiped her eyes, announcing suddenly: "And I'm
going to be game now. If there's one thing I nevah could beah, it was
for you to think I was a coward, and I can't have you thinking it now.
It's a sawt of tryst I've kept all these yeahs, unconsciously, I
suppose. Ever since I was a little thing, if I thought 'Bobby expects it
of me,' I'd do it, no mattah what it was, from jumping a fence to
climbing on the chimney. I've lived up to yoah expectations many a time
at the risk of killing myself."

"Indeed you have," he answered, in a tone of hearty admiration. There
was a tender light in his gray eyes which she did not see, she was so
busy wiping her own.

"I'm done crying now," she announced, springing to her feet and
thrusting Belinda back into the trunk. "Come on, let's go down and pop
some cawn ovah the library fiah. P