, was Wyn's. She was just as girlish and
"fly-away" at times, as Frances Cameron herself, or Percy Havel; but she
always stopped short of hurting another person's feelings and she seemed
to really enjoy doing things for others, which her mates sometimes
acclaimed as "tiresome."

And don't think there was a mite of self-consciousness about all this in
Wyn Mallory's make-up, for there wasn't. She enjoyed being helpful and
kind because that was her nature--not for the praise she might receive
from her older friends.

Wyn was a natural leader. Such girls always are. Without asserting
themselves, other girls will look up to them, and copy them, and follow
them. Whereas a bad, or ill-natured, or haughty girl must have some
means of bribing the weak-minded ones to gain a following at all.

The Mallory family was a small one. Wyn had a little sister; but there
was a difference of twelve years between them. The family was a very
affectionate one, and Papa Mallory, Mamma Mallory, and Wyn all
worshipped at the shrine of little May.

So when at supper that Friday evening something was said about certain
drygoods needed for the little one, Wyn offered at once to spend her
Saturday forenoon shopping.

She had plenty to do that morning; Saturday morning is always a busy
time for any school girl in the upper grades, and Wyn was well advanced
at Denton Academy. But she hastened out by nine o'clock and went down
town.

Denton was a pretty town, with good stores, a courthouse, well stocked
library and several churches of various denominations. In the center was
an ancient Parade Ground--a broad, well-shaped public park, with a huge
flagstaff in the middle of the main field, and Civil War cannon flanking
the entrances.

Denton had a history. On this open field the Minute Men had marched and
counter-marched; and before Revolutionary days, even, the so-called
"train-bands" had paraded here. Like Boston Common, Denton's Parade
Ground was a plot devoted for all time to the people, and could be used
for no other purpose but that of a public park.

The streets that bordered the three sides of the Parade Ground (for it
was of flat-iron shape) were the best residential streets of the town;
yet Market Street--the main business thoroughfare--was only a square
away from one side of the park.

Wyn Mallory on this bright May morning walked briskly along the shaded
side of the park and turned off at Archer Street to reach the main stem
of th