heap of white popped corn. Bowing low to the Lady Principal he
remarked:

"With your permission, Ma'am;" then set the articles down beside the
"caldron," clapping his hands to attract the schoolgirls' attention
and bid them gather around his "treat" to enjoy it. Then, stumbling
over a fallen mask, he sternly ordered Jack:

"Get to work and clear these things up, and don't you forget to save
Baal's, for, likely, 'twill be needed again."

At which the boot-boy's face turned crimson, though that might have
come from stooping.

Nobody waited a second invitation to enjoy the good things that John's
thoughtfulness had provided; but, sitting on the floor around his
baskets, they made him act the host in dispensing fair portions to
all, a maid having quickly brought plates, nutpicks and cups for their
service.

After the feast followed games and dances galore, till the hour grew
late for schoolgirls, and the Bishop begged:

"Before we part, my children, please give us a little music. A song
from the Minims, a bit from the Sevenths on the piano, and a violin
melody from our girl from the South. For it is she, really, who is
responsible for this delightful party. Now she has coaxed us into
trying it once, I propose that we make Hallowe'en an annual junketing
affair, and--All in favor of so doing say 'Aye.'"

After which the "Ayes" and hand claps were so deafening, that the good
man bowed his head as if before a storm. Then the room quieted and the
music followed; but when it came to Dorothy's turn she was nowhere to
be seen. Girlish cries for "Queenie!" "Miss Dixie!" "Dolly! Dolly
Doodles!" "Miss Calvert to the front!" failed to bring her.

"Gone to 'step-an'-fetch' her fiddle--or Mr. Gilpin's, maybe!"
suggested Winifred, with a mischievous glance at the old man who sat
on the floor in the midst of the girls, gay now as any of them and
still urging them to take "just a han'ful more" of the nuts he had
been at such pains to crack for them.

But neither Dorothy nor "fiddle" appeared; and the festivities came to
a close without her.

"Queer where Queenie went to!" said Florita, walking along the hall
toward her dormitory, "and as queer, too, where that goat came from."

"Seemed to be an old acquaintance of the farmer's, didn't it? He
called it 'Baal,' as if that was its name; and wasn't it too funny for
words? to see him chasing after it, catching it and letting it slip
away so, till Jack caught it and led it away. F