ongue just in time
to keep the wonderful secret from tumbling off, and flushed furiously.

"And now that what?" questioned the other girl, without the faintest
trace of suspicion in her voice.

"Now that this hard year is over, we are going to do a little
celebrating even if we can't afford it," answered Gail, thinking
rapidly. "Will you make a caramel cake for our dinner? Mrs. Grinnell is
so fond of it, and I know it will hit the right spot with the minister.
It was his suggestion that he tell--" Again she stopped in confusion.

"About the mortgage money," Faith finished. "Well, he certainly has
earned the right. We have a lot to thank him for. Do you know who is
loaning the money, or is that still a secret from you, too?"

"No, Mr. Strong told me, but he wants the privilege of telling the rest
of you, so I promised to keep still."

"Oh!" There was a long pause, during which both girls busied themselves
with the chickens; and then Faith ventured the question, "Is it Judge
Abbott?" Gail smilingly shook her head. "Nor Dr. Bainbridge?" Again the
brown head shook. "Then it is Mrs. Grinnell. I thought of her in the
first place--"

"You are wrong again. All the money she has is tied up in her farm and
in the house in Martindale."

"Is it anyone in town?"

"No."

Faith was plainly puzzled. "Man or woman?"

"Both," answered Gail after a slight hesitation.

"Do I know them?"

"About as well as I do."

"Where do they live?"

"In Martindale."

"Who can it be?" pondered the girl.

"You might guess all night and never get it right," laughed Gail. "You
better give it up. Tomorrow is time enough for little girls to know."

"For little girls to know what?" demanded Peace, as the noisy quartette
burst breathlessly in from school.

"What we are to have for dinner tomorrow night," answered Gail, glancing
warningly at Faith.

"Tomorrow night? We have dinner at noon."

"Tomorrow we don't. We'll have lunch at noon and dinner in the evening."

"Bet there's comp'ny coming!" shouted the smaller girls.

"Who?" asked Hope, almost as much excited.

"The minister and his family, and Mrs. Grinnell."

"What for?" questioned Cherry, for company was rare at the little brown
house.

"Why, to eat up those chickens, of course," answered Peace. "Will there
be enough to go around? Hadn't I better hack the head off from another?"

"Don't you fret! Mike weighed the hens after he killed them, and one is
a seven-pounder, and