nd her longings for great and better things, and fell
to attending Christian Endeavor most strenuously. She was always
coming home with Leslie for overnight and being around in the way.

Allison did not like her in the least, and Julia Cloud barely
tolerated her; but, as the weeks went by, Leslie began to champion
her, to tell the others they were unfair to the girl, and that she
really had a sincere heart and a lovely nature, which had been crushed
by loneliness and sorrow. Allison always snorted angrily when Leslie
got off anything like that, and habitually absented himself whenever
he knew "the vamp," as he called her, was to be there.

It was one day quite late in the fall, almost their last balmy picnic
before the cold weather set in, that they were sitting up on the rocks
around a pleasant, resinous pine-needle fire they had made, discussing
this. Allison was maintaining that it was not good for Leslie to go
with a girl like that, that all the fellows despised; and Leslie was
pouting and saying she didn't see why he had to be so prejudiced and
unfair; and Julia Cloud was looking troubled and wondering whether
her heart and her head were both on the wrong side, or what she ought
to do about it, when a step behind them made them all turn around
startled. It was the first time they had been interrupted by an
intruder in this retreat, and it had come to seem all their own.
Moreover, the cocoa on the fire was boiling, and the lunch was about
to be served on the little paper plates.

There stood a tall man with a keen, care-worn face, a scholarly air,
and an unmistakably wistful look in his eyes.

"Why, is this where you spend your nooning, Cloud? It certainly looks
inviting," he said with a comprehensive glance at the wax-papered
sandwiches and the little heap of cakes and fruit.

Allison arose with belated recognition.

"O Dr. Bowman," he said, "let me introduce you to my aunt, Miss Cloud,
and my sister Leslie."

The scholarly gentleman bowed low in acknowledgment of the introduction,
and fairly seemed to melt under the situation.

"Well, now, this certainly is delightful!" he said, still eying the
generously spread rock table. "Quite an idea! Quite an idea! Is this
some special occasion, some celebration or something?" He glanced
genially round on the group.

"Oh, no, we often bring our lunch out here," said Julia Cloud in a
matter-of-fact tone. "It keeps us out-of-doors, and makes a pleasant
change." Ther