resting on her hands. "Got a letter from the folks at home today,
telling me not to come home for the summer, that's all. Father and
Mother have been invited to go on an automobile trip through California
and there's no room for me. Aunt Anna will be glad to keep me all right,
but Cousin Grace will be gone all summer--she left yesterday--and it
will be pretty dull for me. Aunt Anna is so deaf----" She finished with
an eloquent gesture of the hands.

"You poor thing!" cried Migwan, drawing Katherine close to her in spite
of her wet garments. "We'll all have to combine to make the summer
lively for you. You'll have some fun even if your aunt is deaf and would
rather read than talk. Don't worry."

Katherine's head suddenly went down on her knee. "What's the matter?"
cried the three in added dismay.

"It isn't because I don't want to stay," said Katherine in a choking
voice, "it's because I want to go home. It's hotter out there than a
blast furnace, and our one-story brick shack is like an oven, and we
haven't one-tenth of the comforts that people have here, but
it's--home!"

Migwan rolled Katherine over and took her head into her lap. "I know
just how you feel," she said softly. "After you've been away from home a
whole year nothing looks good to you any more but that. And when you've
been crossing off the days on your calendar and been cheered up every
night when you realized that you were that much nearer home it must be
an awful bump to find out that you're not to go after all. But cheer up,
it won't be so bad after all, once you get used to the idea. Think what
a good time your folks are having, and then start out and hunt up some
adventures of your own."

Thus she comforted the doleful Katherine and the others pressed around
to express their sympathy and none of them heard the automobile stop in
front of the house. They all started violently when Gladys burst into
their midst, and regardless of the prostrating temperature, danced a jig
on the porch floor.

"Oh, girls," she cried, waving a palm-leaf fan over her head like a
triumphal banner, "listen! Papa has bought Lake Huron and we're all
going camping!"

And without noticing the tears in Katherine's eyes, she pulled her out
of Migwan's lap and danced around with her.

"Your papa has done _what_?" cried Migwan, her voice shrill with
amazement. "Oh, how do you do, Mrs. Evans." For Gladys's mother,
proceeding more leisurely up the walk than her impetuous da