and with a hearty handshake
they parted.

As Grace prepared for bed that night she turned Marian's words over and
over in her mind, but could arrive at no logical conclusion, and finally
dropped to sleep with the riddle still unsolved.

CHAPTER XIV

GRACE AND ANNE PLAN A STUDY CAMPAIGN

With the delights of the past holiday season still fresh in their
memories, the pupils of Oakdale High School went back to their studies
on the fourth of January, and in the course of a few days everything was
again in smooth running order.

Semi-annual examinations were but three weeks away, and that meant a
general brushing up in studies on the part of every pupil.

The senior class had, perhaps, less to do in the way of study than the
three lower classes. A few of the seniors already had enough credits to
insure graduation, although the majority expected the results of the
January examinations to place them securely among the number to be
graduated.

The members of the Phi Sigma Tau, with the exception of Anne, were among
the latter, and had settled down to a three weeks' grind, from which no
form of pleasure could beguile them.

As for Anne, she had carried five studies the entire time she had been
in High School and had never failed in even one examination. She might
have graduated a year earlier had she been so disposed.

Away down in her heart Anne cherished a faint hope that the way for a
college career would yet be opened to her. She had made up her mind to
try for a scholarship, and she prayed earnestly that before the close of
her senior year she might hit upon some plan that would furnish the
money for her support during her freshman year in college.

Grace was optimistic in regard to Anne's college career.

"You'll have some opportunity to earn money before the year is out, just
see if you don't," she said to Anne one day at recess, when the latter
had developed an unusual case of the blues. "If you just keep wishing
hard enough for a thing you are pretty sure to get it. That is, if it's
something that's good for you to have."

"I've been wishing for the same thing ever since I came to Oakdale, and
I haven't got it yet," replied Anne rather mournfully. "I've been
unusually short of money this year, too, because Mrs. Gray has been
away, and the money I received from her work was a great help."

"Poor little Anne," said Grace sympathetically. "I wish you didn't have
to worry over money. However, Mrs. Gr