s. It would
do them a world of good to see something wet for once."

Fate or the fairy godmother, or whoever the mysterious being is that
always pops up at the right moment in the story books, but who is
practically an unknown quantity in real life, proved that she was not a
myth after all by suddenly and unceremoniously granting Sahwah's wish.
Round the corner of the house came Katherine, dripping water on all
sides like Undine, her skirts clinging limply to her ankles, while
little rivulets ran from her head over her nose and dripped from the
ends of her lanky locks. Up on the porch she came, all dripping as she
was, and sank down on the wicker couch beside Sahwah.

"Why, Katherine _Adams_, what has happened to you?" cried the three
all together.

"Nothing much," replied Katherine laconically, tipping the lemonade
pitcher over her head and putting out her tongue to catch the last drop.
The drop missed the tongue and landed full in her eye, whence it joined
the stream trickling over her nose into her lap. "I just stopped to
investigate a garden hose on the way over," she continued. "It was on a
lawn close by the sidewalk and the thinnest little stream you ever saw
was coming out. I was so thirsty I simply couldn't go by without taking
a drink, and I just turned the nozzle the least little bit when it
suddenly came out in a perfect deluge and sprinkled me all over. Then,
seeing that I was wet anyhow I didn't make any haste to get out from
under the cooling flood. There, ladies, you have the whyness of the
thusness. I'm thoroughly comfortable now and inclined to think lightly
of my troubles. Why don't you follow my example and stand under the
hose?"

"Thanks," said Sahwah, edging away from Katherine's dripping proximity,
"I'm all right as I am. Besides, no hose could squirt my troubles away."

"It didn't seem to dispel your gloom, either, Katherine," said Migwan,
looking closely at Katherine, who, after the first moment of banter, had
lapsed into silence and sat staring gloomily into the curtain of vines
that covered the end of the porch. "What's the matter?" she asked
curiously, brushing back the damp hair from Katherine's forehead with a
gentle hand. It was easy to see how Katherine was idolized by the rest
of the Winnebagos. For her to act depressed was unheard of and alarming.
At Migwan's words Sahwah and Hinpoha stared at Katherine in dismay.

"Oh, I'm just low in my mind," said Katherine, with her head still