e lonely for I'll always love you most in the world
of anybody or anything. And when I'm very grown-up and can't go to
school any more we'll travel, won't we? You and me and Little-Dad--won't
we, mamsey?"

"Yes, dear." But the mother's eyes smiled in the darkness--she was
thinking of the empty nest.

Jerry laid her cheek against her mother's arm. She drew a long breath.

"The world's so wonderful, isn't it? It's dreadful to think of anyone in
it, like my--father, who's set his heart so hard on just one thing that
he can't see all the other things he might do! I shall _never_ be like
that! And it's dreadful"--she frowned sorrowfully out over the starlit
valley--"to think of girls who haven't mothers and who can't go to
school. Why, I'm the very, very richest girl in the world!" Then she
blushed. "I don't mean _that_ money, mamsey, I mean having you
and--Sunnyside and Kettle and just knowing about--our garden!"

CHAPTER XXIX

THE WISHING-ROCK

Three girls sat on the Wishing-rock, beating their heels against its
mossy side. And the world stretched before them. It was the end of a
momentous day--momentous because so many things had been decided and
such nice things! First, Uncle Johnny had said that he'd "fix" it with
Mrs. Westley that Isobel and Gyp should remain at Kettle a month longer,
then Mrs. Allan had driven over from Cobble and announced that she was
going to have a house-party and her guests were going to be Pat Everett,
Renee La Due and her brother, and Peggy and Garrett Lee, and Garrett Lee
was going to bring Dana King. And Jerry and Uncle Johnny had prevailed
upon Little-Dad to accept an automobile.

"You can keep Silverheels for just fun and work in the automobile and
then we can go over to Cobble and to Wayside and----"

Little-Dad had not liked the thought at first. Somehow, to bring a
chugging, smelling, snorting automobile up to Sunnyside to stay seemed
an insult to the peace and beauty and simplicity of his little
tucked-away home. But when Jerry pleaded and even Mrs. Travis admitted
it would be nice and reminded him that Silverheels was growing old, he
yielded, and Uncle Johnny promised to order one immediately--he knew
just the kind that would climb Kettle and run as simply as a
sewing-machine.

But the best of all that had been "decided" since sunrise was that Jerry
should go back to Highacres----

"_Pinch_ me, Gypsy Editha Westley--pinch me _hard_!" she cried as she
sat between Gy