ing ragtime! I'm sure a lemon-coloured
nocturne or a flaming fugue would be nearer their idea of melody."

"Play us a fox-trot, Nan," said Patty, jumping up, and in another
minute, as Nan obligingly acquiesced, Patty and Chick were dancing
gaily up and down the room.

"Forgive me, Patty," said Chick, as they danced out into the hall, "I
wouldn't offend you or your friends for worlds, but they--well, they
struck me funny, you see."

"They're not funny, Chick. They're the real thing. You can't see it,
I know, and neither can Dad or Nan, but I do."

"All right, Patty. Go into it if you like. I don't believe it will
hurt you. And like the measles, the harder you have it, the sooner
you'll get over it, and you'll never have it but once. By the way,
they invited me to their Christmas racket,--and I'm going!"

CHAPTER XIII

ELISE AND PATTY

"I think you're just as mean as you can be, Patty Fairfield! You won't
come to my tree and you won't have the House Sale, and you won't do a
thing anybody wants you to! I never saw such a disagreeable old thing
as you are!"

"Why, Elise, you dear little, sweet, 'bused child! Am I as bad as all
that? You do su'prise me! Well, well, I must mend my ways. I've
always had a reputation for good nature, but it seems to be slipping
awa' Jean, like snow in the thaw, Jean,--as the song book says. Now,
my friend and pardner, here's my ultimatum. But smile on me, first, or
I can't talk to you at all. You look like a thunder cloud,--a very
pretty thunder cloud, to be sure,--but still, lowering and threatening.
Brace up, idol of my heart,--shine out, little face, sunning over with
raven black curls,--I seem to be poetically inclined, don't I?"

Elise laughed in spite of herself. The two girls had been discussing
plans, and as Patty stuck to her determination to spend Christmas Eve
at the Blaneys', Elise was angry, because she was to have her own
Christmas tree that night, and, of course, wanted Patty with her.

They were in the Farringtons' library. It was nearly dusk, and Patty
was just about to get her hat to go home, when they began the
controversy afresh.

"I can't help laughing, because you're so silly, but I'm angry at you
all the same," Elise averred, with a shake of her dark, curly head.
"You're so wrapped up in the Blaneys and their idiotic old crowd, that
you have no time or attention for your old friends."

"It does seem so," mused Patty; "of course, it m