rnoon with the grandmother on the second floor.

"My soul an' body!" she said. "Whatever will you do next!"

Mary Rose saw Mr. Jerry in his car in the alley and ran to the open
window to tell him of the pleasure that was in store for her.

"Mr. Jerry! Oh, Mr. Jerry! I'm going to the lake with the enchanted
princess. Don't you wish you were me?"

Mr. Jerry waved his hand as he smiled and nodded, but Mary Rose did not
wait to hear whether he would like to change places with her, for she had
to slip out of the plaid skirt and middy blouse into a white frock that
Aunt Kate had shortened.

"Isn't it the luckiest thing that Ella had so many beautiful clothes!"
she said breathlessly. "I shouldn't want to go out with Miss Thorley in
that horrid boys' suit."

She was ready first, and as she waited in the lower hall she talked to
Mrs. Schuneman about Germania. Miss Thorley found them together when she
came down, looking exactly like a princess to Mary Rose, in her white
linen skirt and lingerie blouse and with a big black hat all a-bloom with
pink roses on her red-brown head.

"I was ready first," Mary Rose cried happily, "but I didn't mind waiting,
for I was talking to a friend, to Mrs. Schuneman. She has Germania, you
know. This is my friend, Miss Thorley, Mrs. Schuneman." She introduced
them politely.

Miss Thorley nodded carelessly, but even a careless glance told her that
there was not the sign of a grouch on Mrs. Schuneman's fat red face that
day. Indeed, it quite beamed with friendliness as she hoped that they
would have a good time.

"You see, she's very pleasant when you know her," Mary Rose explained as
they walked over to the street car. "That's why it's so important to
know people. If you don't really know them, you might often think they
were grouchy when they aren't."

CHAPTER IX

Lake Nokomis was on the outskirts of Waloo and was a popular pleasure
resort for Waloo people from June until September. A band played in
the pavilion, there was a moving picture show, a merry-go-round with a
wheezy organ, a roller coaster and many other amusement features, as
well as several ice-cream parlors. There was always a crowd drifting
from one place to another, and Mary Rose fairly danced with delight
when she and Miss Thorley became a part of the good-natured throng.

They were standing beside the enclosure in which the fat Shetland
ponies waited for the children who were fortunate enough to pos