he hem she was turning. "They're
coming to New York with me; and in the
between-times we'll have such fun that they'll
never want to come home."

Pauline laughed. "It looks as though
Hilary and I would have a busy winter
between you all. It is a comfort to know where
we are going."

"Remember!" she warned, when later the
party broke up. "Four o'clock Friday afternoon! Sharp!"

"Are we going out in a blaze of glory?"
Bell questioned.

"You might tell us where we are going,
now, Paul," Josie urged.

Pauline shook her head. "You wait until
Friday, like good little girls. Mind, you all
bring wraps; it'll be chilly coming home."

Pauline's turn was to be the final wind-up
of the club's regular outings. No one outside
the home folks, excepting Tom, had been
taken into her confidence--it had been
necessary to press him into service. And when, on
Friday afternoon, the young people gathered
at the parsonage, all but those named were
still in the dark.

Besides the regular members, Mrs. Shaw,
Mr. Dayre, Mr. Allen, Harry Oram and Patience
were there; the minister and Dr. Brice
had promised to join the party later if possible.

As a rule, the club picnics were cooperative
affairs; but to-day the members, by special
request, arrived empty-handed. Mr. Paul
Shaw, learning that Pauline's turn was yet to
come, had insisted on having a share in it.

"I am greatly interested in this club," he
had explained. "I like results, and I think,"
he glanced at Hilary's bright happy face,
"that the 'S. W. F. Club' has achieved at least
one very good result."

And on the morning before the eventful
Friday, a hamper had arrived from New
York, the watching of the unpacking of which
had again transformed Patience, for the time,
from an interrogation to an exclamation point.

"It's a beautiful hamper," she explained to
Towser. "It truly is--because father says,
it's the inner, not the outer, self that makes
for real beauty, or ugliness; and it certainly
was the inside of that hamper that counted.
I wish you were going, Towser. See here,
suppose you follow on kind of quietly
to-morrow afternoon--don't show up too soon, and
I guess I can manage it."

Which piece of advice Towser must have
understood. At any rate, he acted upon it to
the best of his ability, following the party at a
discreet distance through the garden and down
the road towards the lake; and only when the
halt at the pier came, did he venture