e
thought of the white-haired boy, for the time being, out of the older
girl's mind. As soon as she saw Ruth she began her tale.

"What do you think, Ruthie Kenway? I just met Eva Larry on the Parade,
and that Trix Severn was with her. You know that Trix Severn?"

"Beatrice Severn? Yes," said Ruth, placidly. "A very well-dressed girl.
Her parents must be well off."

"Her father is Terrence Severn, and he keeps a summer hotel at Pleasant
Cove. But I don't like her. And I'm not going to like Eva if she makes a
friend of that Trix," cried Agnes, stormily.

"Now, Agnes! don't be foolish," admonished Ruth.

"You wait till you hear what that nasty Trix said to me--about us all!"

"Why, she can't hurt us--much--no matter what she says," Ruth declared,
still calmly.

"You can talk! I'm just going to tell Eva she needn't ask me to walk
with her again when Trix is with her. I came along behind them across
the Parade Ground and Eva called me. I didn't like Trix before, and I
tried to get away.

"'I've got to hurry, Eva,' I said. 'Mrs. MacCall is waiting for this
soap-powder.'

"'I should think you Corner House girls could afford to hire somebody to
run your errands, if you've got all the money they say you have,' says
Trix Severn--just like that!"

"What did you reply, Aggie!" asked the older Kenway girl.

"'It doesn't matter how much, or how little, money we have,' I told
her," said Agnes, "'there's no lazy-bones in our family, thank
goodness!' For Eva told me that Trix's mother doesn't get up till noon
and that their house is all at sixes and sevens."

"Oh! that sharp tongue of yours," said Ruth, admonishingly.

"I hope she took it," declared Agnes, savagely. "She said to me: 'Oh!
people who haven't been used to leisure don't really know how to enjoy
money, I suppose, when they _do_ get it.'

"'You needn't worry, Miss,' I said. 'We get all the fun there is going,
and don't have to be idle, either. And whoever told _you_ we weren't
used to money before we came to Milton?'"

"Fie! Fie, Aggie! That was in the worst possible taste," cried Ruth.

"I don't care," exclaimed Agnes, stormily. "She's a nasty thing! And
when I hurried on, I heard her laugh and say to Eva:

"'"Put a beggar on horseback," you know. Miss Titus, the dressmaker,
says those Kenways never had two cents to bless themselves with before
old crazy Peter Stower died and left them all that money.'"

"Well, dear, I wouldn't make a mountain out of a