of the day, hurried
visits were made to the sewing-room when no one else was in sight, and
the pungent smell of paint and paste filled the house.

But at last all three rooms were in spick-and-span order, and the two
judges were summoned to behold the result of the week's labor. At the
first door they halted, and the President turned to his wife with a
ludicrous grimace as he said, "Dora, I am afraid I've got us into
trouble. How in this wide world are we going to be able to decide which
is the prettiest room! And if it should be easy to decide that question,
how shall we ever make our peace with the occupants of the other two?
Oh, Dora!"

"Open the door!" clamored the laughing girls. "You should have thought
of these things before you made such a rash promise." And they pressed
about him so relentlessly that he was forced to turn the knob and enter
the first bower of loveliness.

It was indeed a bower, so refreshingly cool and beautiful with its color
scheme of pink and green and brown that it required very little
imagination to transport one into the heart of some enchanted woods; and
instinctively the four younger girls as well as the judges burst into a
long-drawn exclamation of wonder and delight.

"Oh, I can smell the flowers," cried Hope, sniffing the air hungrily as
if expecting to find the woodland blossoms there.

"And hear the creek," added Peace.

"I suppose they have won the prize," sighed Cherry disconsolately, while
behind their backs Gail and Faith ecstatically hugged each other.

"Don't decide the question until we have seen the other two," suggested
Mrs. Campbell sagely, and the excited company flocked eagerly into the
next room.

Here everything was in blue and gold, even to the dainty curtains at the
windows. The walls were covered with a delicate blue paper, dotted with
sprays of cheerful goldenrod; the dresser and table were decorated with
blue silk scarfs embroidered with the same flower; gilt-framed pictures
hung upon the walls; and from the head of each narrow, gilded bedstead
floated soft draperies of blue.

"Sky and sunshine," murmured Gail, quick to feel the perfect harmony of
the room. "Isn't it lovely?"

"Yes, and it is fully as pretty as ours," whispered Faith, "though I
like ours best."

"Now for the last," Cherry urged eagerly, well content with the
rapturous exclamations her room and Hope's had brought forth. "This will
have to be awfully good to beat the other two."

"I