scraped and cleaned and properly polished,
you would be well worth liking."

"Go on! go on!" cried Patty, clapping her hands. "Now I know you're
the real thing in poets! That's the way I thought they would talk!
Say more."

But Blaney turned sulky. He scowled at Patty, he threw a reproachful
glance at Elise, and the atmosphere suddenly charged with gloom.

Patty felt that it was her fault and that she had perhaps gone too far.
The man was Elise's guest and it wasn't right to make fun of him, if he
did sound foolish. So, ignoring the past conversation, Patty smiled,
and said, "It is too bad about the storm, isn't it? We had expected to
have such a fine tennis game today. You play, of course?"

It was a chance shot, but Patty felt pretty sure that such a big,
muscular chap would be fond of outdoor sports and, as it turned out, he
was. Moreover, it would be a grumpy poet, indeed, who wouldn't relent
under the magic of Patty's smile.

"Yes, I do," he replied, animatedly, and then the talk turned to the
game, and the chances of the storm abating and play being possible in a
day or two.

"Hello, Blaney," said Roger Farrington, coming into the room. "How's
everything?"

"All right, Farry. How goes it with you?"

"Fine. I say, girls, are you game for a little two-cent sleigh ride in
the storm? As soon as it stops snowing, the flakes will melt like
morning dew, and, if we catch a ride at all, it must be immejit. How
about it?"

"I'd love to go!" cried Patty, her eyes sparkling. "I haven't had a
sleigh ride in ages----"

"And no telling when you will again," said Roger. "But it's blowing
great guns, and snowing fast. You're sure you want to go?"

"Course we do," insisted Elise. "Shall we get our things now?"

"Not quite yet. I'll have to telephone Mr. Livery Man for a rig. This
otherwise well-stocked outfit that we're inhabiting doesn't have such a
thing on the premises as a sleigh. I'll go and see about it."

"Can't we stop and pick up Alla?" suggested Elise.

"No," and Sam Blaney shook his head decidedly. "My sister wouldn't
think of putting her nose out-of-doors on a day like this. I'm
surprised that you will, Miss Fairfield."

"Oh, I'm a tough pine knot. I may not look the part, but I assure you
wind and weather have no terrors for me."

"That's so," put in Elise. "Patty looks like a chaff which the wind
driveth away, but it would be a pretty strong old wind that could do
it."

"