p Tom Gray. "So far, however, as being able to read the
notes of the birds or the growl of a bull pup--piffle!"

"I agree with you," nodded Elfreda.

"Emma, where do you get all that dope?" questioned Hippy. "I am
beginning to believe what I suspected last season, when you were riding
that 'con-centration' hobby, that your war service has unbalanced your
mind."

"No, no! He is only joking, Emma," protested Nora.

"It matters little to me what Hippy Wingate says or thinks. I belong to
the 'Voice of Nature Cult.'"

"What's that? A breakfast food?" laughed Anne.

"The 'Cult' is an organization of advanced thinkers, presided over by
Madam Gersdorff, an adept who can converse with the birds of the air,
the animals and--"

"I wish she were here," declared Hippy with emphasis. "I should like to
have her tell that bronco what my opinion of him is and hear what he
says in reply," added Lieutenant Wingate, flipping a biscuit, which
Hindenburg deftly caught and gulped down at a single swallow.

"Madam Gersdorff gave some remarkable demonstrations of her power in the
direction of interpreting the voices of nature last winter," resumed
Emma. "She is giving me a correspondence course at five dollars a
lesson, which I consider a remarkably low price. I wish I might induce
you girls to take the course, but I don't suppose any of you have the
nerve to do so in the face of Hippy Wingate's unkind criticisms. Let me
tell you something. A medium that I went to in Boston a few weeks ago
told me some remarkable things about myself. I had been telling her of
this 'Voice of Nature Cult.' 'How strange,' answered the medium. 'I see
birds all about you. A whole flock of them accompanied you into this
very room. See! They are hovering over you at this very moment.'"

"I'll bet they were a flock of crows," murmured Hippy.

"Did you see them, darlin'?" begged Nora in an awed tone that brought
smiles to the faces of her companions.

"No. I was not sufficiently in tune with nature to see them, especially
in daylight."

"Good-night!" muttered Hippy Wingate.

"And what do you think the medium also said?" asked Emma.

"Five dollars, please," laughed Grace.

"She did not. All she would consent to take from me was a dollar, and
she said that, if I would come to her twice a week regularly, she would
promise that, in a few weeks, I could see the birds as well as she
could. But I didn't tell you--what the medium said of even greater
importan