she was breaking rules by "visiting without permission" lay a
feeling of guilt. "Double guilt" she knew, because she had imposed
upon Dorothy's ignorance by stating that during "exercise hour" any
long resident pupil was free to go where she chose. This was true, but
only in a measure. What was not true was that so distant a point as
John Gilpin's cottage should be chosen, much less entered without
permission.

But curiosity had been too strong for her and she had resented, on
Dorothy's account, the refusal of Dr. Winston's invitation in the
morning. Besides, she argued with her own conscience:

"We're excused from school supper and free to entertain each other in
my room till chapel. What difference does it make, and who will know?
To-morrow, I'll go and 'fess to Miss Muriel and if she is displeased
I'll take my punishment, whatever it is, without a word. Anyhow, Dolly
can't be punished for what she doesn't know is wrong."

So, feeling that she "was in for it, anyway" Winifred's mood grew
reckless and she "let herself go" to a positive hilarity.

Dorothy watched and listened in surprise but soon caught her
schoolmate's spirit, and jested and laughed as merrily as she. Even
Robin tried to match their funny remarks with odd stories of his own
and after a little time, when he had eaten as much as they could make
him, began to sing a long rigmarole, of innumerable verses, that began
with the same words and ended midway each verse, only to resume. It
was all something about the king and the queen and the "hull r'yal
famblely" which Dorothy promptly capped with an improved version of
Yankee Doodle.

Whereupon, the absurd jumble and discord of the two contrasting tunes
proved too much for old John's gravity. Springing up from his chair in
the outer room he seized his fiddle from its shelf and scraped away on
a tune of his own. For his fiddle was his great delight and his one
resort at times when his wife silenced his voluble tongue.

The old fiddle was sadly out of tune and Dorothy couldn't endure that.
Running to him she begged him:

"Oh! do stop that, please, please! Here, let me take and get it into
shape. You make me cringe, you squawk so!"

"You fix it? you, lassie! Well, if that don't beat the Dutch! What
else do they l'arn children over in the States? Leave 'em to go
sky-larkin' round the country in railway carriages all by themsel's,
and how to help doctors set broken bones, and how to fiddle a
tune--Stars a