gestion."

"What _is_ the matter, Helen?" asked Ruth Fielding in wonder.

"'Fee, fi, fo fum! I see the negro run!'--into the woodpile!"
ejaculated the lame girl, in her biting way. "I know what is the matter
with Queen Helen of Troy. She's been with The Fox."

Ruth and Heavy stared at Mercy in surprise; but Helen turned her head
aside.

"That's the answer!" chuckled the shrewd little creature. "I saw
them walk off together after supper. And The Fox has been trying to make
trouble--same as usual."

"Mary Cox! Why, that's impossible," said Heavy, good-naturedly. "She
wouldn't say anything to make Helen feel bad."

Mercy darted an accusing fore-finger at Helen, and still kept her eyes
screwed up. "I dare you to tell! I dare you to tell!" she cried in a
singsong voice.

Helen had to laugh at last.

"Well, Mary Cox said you had decided to have none but Sweetbriars at the
cottage on the beach, Heavy."

"Lot she knows about it," grunted the stout girl.

"Why, Heavy asked her to go; didn't she?" cried Ruth.

"Well, that was last Winter. I didn't press her," admitted the stout
girl.

"But she's your roommate, like Belle and Lluella," said Ruth, in some
heat. "Of course you've got to ask her."

"Don't you do it. She's a spoil-sport," declared Mercy Curtis, in
her sharp way. "The Fox will keep us all in hot water."

"Do be still, Mercy!" cried Ruth. "This is Heavy's own affair. And
Mary Cox has been her roommate ever since she's been at Briarwood."

"I don't know that Belle and Lluella can go with us," said the stout
girl, slowly. "The fright they got up in the woods last Winter scared
their mothers. I guess they think I'm too reckless. Sort of wild, you
know," and the stout girl's smile broadened.

"But you intended inviting Mary Cox?" demanded Ruth, steadily.

"Yes. I said something about it to her. But she wouldn't give me a
decided answer then."

"Ask her again."

"Don't you do it!" exclaimed Mercy, sharply.

"I mean it, Jennie," Ruth said.

"I can't please both of you," said the good-natured stout girl.

"Please me. Mercy doesn't mean what she says. If Mary Cox thinks that
I am opposed to your having her at Lighthouse Point, I shall be offended
if you do not immediately insist upon her being one of the party."

"And that'll suit The Fox right down to the ground," exclaimed Mercy.
"That is what she was fishing for when she got at Helen to-night."

"Did _I_ say she said anything about Lighthouse P