ith Tom and Josie and the camera. "So
there's really no one to ask permission of, Towser," Patience
explained, as they started off down the back lane. "Father's got the
study door closed, of course that means he mustn't be disturbed for
anything unless it's absolutely necessary."

Towser wagged comprehendingly. He was quite ready for a ramble this
bright afternoon, especially a ramble 'cross lots.

Shirley and her father were not at home, neither--which was even more
disappointing--were any of the dogs; so, after a short chat with Betsy
Todd, considerably curtailed by that body's too frankly expressed
wonder that Patience should've been allowed to come unattended by any
of her elders, she and Towser wandered home again.

In the lane, they met Sextoness Jane, sitting on the roadside, under a
shady tree. She and Patience exchanged views on parish matters,
discussed the new club, and had an all-round good gossip.

"My sakes!" Jane said, her faded eyes bright with interest, "it must
seem like Christmas all the time up to your house." She looked past
Patience to the old church beyond, around which her life had centered
itself for so many years. "There weren't ever such doings at the
parsonage--nor anywhere else, what I knowed of--when I was a girl.
Why, that Bedelia horse! Seems like she give an air to the whole
place--so pretty and high-stepping--it's most's good's a circus--not
that I've ever been to a circus, but I've hear tell on them--just to
see her go prancing by."

"I think," Patience said that evening, as they were all sitting on the
porch in the twilight, "I think that Jane would like awfully to belong
to our club."

"Have you started a club, too?" Pauline teased.

Patience tossed her red head. "'The S. W. F. Club,' I mean; and you
know it, Paul Shaw. When I get to be fifteen, I shan't act half so
silly as some folks."

"What ever put that idea in your head?" Hilary asked. It was one of
Hilary's chief missions in life to act as intermediary between her
younger and older sister.

"Oh, I just gathered it, from what she said. Towser and I met her this
afternoon, on our way home from the manor."

"From where, Patience?" her mother asked quickly, with that faculty for
taking hold of the wrong end of a remark, that Patience had had
occasion to deplore more than once.

And in the diversion this caused, Sextoness Jane was forgotten.

"Here comes Mr. Boyd, Hilary!" Pauline called from the foot of