after Dad for a new one. Say, when's Mary's surprise? Is
it true it's put off till next week?"

"I'm going to have a new dress for that and silver slippers," declared
the girl next her, teetering back and forth on her little high-heeled
pumps. "Say, Will, that letter's cock-eyed. What are you giving us?
What's the old topic, anyway? I don't see any use in topics. They
don't mean anything. I never can find a verse with the words in. I
just always ask for a hymn, and half the time I give out any old
number without knowing what it is, just to see what it'll turn out."

"Oh, say! Did you hear Chauncey Cramer singing last Sunday night?"
broke out the third girl with a side glance at the strangers. "He was
perfectly killing. He was twisting the words all around in every
hymn. He had girls' names and fellers' all mixed up, and made it rhyme
in the neatest way. I thought I'd choke laughing, and Dr. Tarrant was
just coming in, and looked at me as if he'd eat me. Oh, my goodness!
There he comes now. We better beat it, Hattie. Come on, Mabel. Let's
sit back in the last row."

The three girls toppled down the aisle on their high-heeled pumps, and
rustled into the back row just as the pastor entered and looked about
the room. His eyes brightened when he saw the brother and sister, and
with a pleasant "Good-evening" to the three whispering misses in the
back seat he came over to shake hands with Allison and Leslie. But,
when he expressed a most cordial hope that the two would come in and
help in the young people's work, Allison was wary. He said they would
have to see how much time they had to spare after college opened. It
was altogether likely that they would be exceedingly busy with their
college work.

The minister, watching their bright faces wistfully, and knowing their
kind, sighed, and thought how little likelihood there was that his
Christian Endeavor society would see much of them.

A few more people straggled in, and one of the girls who had been
picking out hymns went and sat down at the piano. The other girl sat
near her. The young man at the blackboard took his place at the little
table in front of the desk, and the elaborate colored letters which he
had just made were visible as a whole for the first time.

"The Great Companion: How to Live with Him."

There was something startling and solemn in the words as they stood
out in blue and gold and crimson and white on the little blackboard.
Allison and Leslie look