t Sallie wishes us to make a good impression
in Washington."

Barbara sighed. "I'll try, Ruth," she declared, "but you know what
remarkable talent I have for getting into mischief."

"Then you are to be specially par-tic-u-lar, Mistress Bab!" Ruth said
teasingly. "For Aunt Sallie's last words to me were: 'Tell Barbara she is
to look before she leaps.'"

Barbara shook her brown head vigorously. "I am not the impetuous Bab of
other automobile days. But, just the same, I wish Aunt Sallie had come
along with you."

"Oh, she may join us later," Ruth returned. "To tell you the truth, Bab,
Aunt Sallie is not fond of Harriet. She thinks Harriet is clever and
pretty, but vain and spoiled. Here come Mollie and Grace. Home from that
reception at last!"

The other two girls burst into Ruth's room at this moment.

"Whom do you think we have seen?" called out Miss Mollie rapturously.
"Oh, Washington is the greatest fun! I feel just like a girl in a book,
we have been presented to so many noted people. I tell you, Barbara
Thurston, we are country girls no longer! Now we have been traveling
about the country so much with Ruth and Mr. Stuart, that we know people
everywhere. Just guess whom we know in Washington?"

"I can guess," Ruth rejoined, clapping her hands. "You have seen Mrs.
Post and Hugh. Surely, you had not forgotten that they live in
Washington. Hugh has finished college and has a position in the Forestry
Department. I had a note from him this morning."

"And didn't tell! Oh, Ruth!" teased Grace Carter. "But, Bab, what about
our Lenox friends, who spend their winters in Washington?"

"You mean Dorothy and Gwendolin Morton, the British Ambassador's
daughters, and funny little Franz Haller, the German secretary, I hope we
shall see them. But do hurry, children. Please don't keep the Assistant
Secretary of State waiting for his dinner. That would surely be a bad
beginning for our Washington visit. No, Mollie Thurston; don't you put on
your very best dress for dinner to-night. I have just gotten out your
white muslin."

"But Harriet wears such lovely clothes all the time, Bab," Mollie
pleaded, when she and Barbara were alone.

"Never mind, child. Harriet Hamlin is not Mollie Thurston," Barbara
concluded wisely.

CHAPTER II

CABINET DAY IN WASHINGTON

It was Harriet Hamlin's reception day. There are certain times appointed
in Washington when the members of the President's Cabinet hold
receptions.

The