y the froth of life! Have you ever longed to sleep in
the woods," she added abruptly, "with stars twinkling overhead and the
moonlight showering softly through the trees?"

"I'm very sure I never have!" said Aunt Agatha with considerable
decision. "And it's not at all likely I ever shall. There are bugs
and things," she added vaguely, "and snakes that wriggle about."

"I've always wanted to lie and dream by a camp fire," mused Diane,
unconscious of a certain startled flutter of Aunt Agatha's dressing
gown, "to hear the wind rising in the forest and the lap of the lake
against the shore." She wheeled abruptly, her eyes bright with
excitement. "And I'm going to try it."

"To sleep by a lake in springtime!" gasped Aunt Agatha in great
distress. "Diane, I beg of you, _don't_ do it! I once knew a man who
slept out somewhere--such a nice man, too!--and something bit him--a
heron, I think, or a herring. No! It couldn't have been either.
Isn't it funny how I do forget! Strangest thing! But to sleep by a
lake in springtime, think of that!"

"Oh, no, no, no, Aunt Agatha!" laughed Diane. "I didn't mean quite
that. I'm merely going back to the Glade farm to-morrow to--" she
glanced with furtive uncertainty at her aunt and halted. "Aunt Agatha,
I've been planning a gypsy cart! There! It's out at last and I
dreaded the telling! When the summer comes, I'm going to travel about
in my wonderful house on wheels and live in the free, wild, open
country!"

"I can't believe it!" said Aunt Agatha, staring. "I can't--I won't
believe it!"

"Don't be a goose!" begged the girl happily. "All winter the voice of
the open country has been calling--calling! There's quicksilver in my
veins. See, Aunt Agatha, see the spring moon--the 'Planting Moon' an
Indian girl I used to know in college called it! How gloriously it
must be shining over silent woods and lakes, flashing silver on the
pines and the ripples by the shore. And the sea, the great, wide,
beautiful, mysterious sea droning under a million stars!"

"Think of that!" breathed Aunt Agatha incredulously. "A million stars!
I can't believe it. But dear me, Diane, there are seas and stars and
moons and things right here in New York."

With a swift flash of tenderness Diane slipped her arm about Aunt
Agatha's perturbed shoulders.

"You're not going to mind at all!" she wheedled gently. "I'm sure of
it. I'd have to go anyway. It's in my blood like the hint of sum