this table."

Briar did so.

"Kneel down, Briar, so that the light from the candle falls full on your
face."

Briar knelt. Her eyes were beaming with happiness.

"Look at me," said Pauline.

Briar raised two honest and pretty brown eyes to her sister's face.

"I think," said Pauline slowly, "that you are the sort of girl to make a
promise--a solemn, awfully solemn promise--and stick to it."

"Yes; you are right. I am made that way," said Briar proudly.

"I see you are. Patty, will you kneel so that the candle may shine on
your face?"

Patty hurried to obey.

"I am made like that, too," she said. "I always was like that. When I
said I wouldn't tell, you might pinch me black and blue, but it didn't
change me. Pen has tried to run pins into me sometimes to make me tell.
Pen is the only one who would tell when she promised not."

"I think so," said Pauline decidedly. "Pen would not do at all. Girls, I
shall come to you to-morrow evening. To-morrow evening, very late, I will
come to you here. Perhaps you will have gone to bed, but that won't
matter. I will come to you whether you are in bed or whether you are up;
and I will claim your promise. You will do what I ask, and you will
never, never, never tell. You must help me. You will--oh, you will!"

"Of course," said Briar. "Darling Paulie, don't cry. Oh, how the pet is
trembling! Patty, she's trembling like anything. Do kiss her and hug her,
and tell her there's nothing we wouldn't do for her."

"There's nothing in all the world we wouldn't do for you," said Patty.

They both kissed her so often and with such deep affection that she found
herself leaning on their innocent strength. She would not tell them yet;
she would tell them just before the time to-morrow evening. Of course
they would go with her. Pen would never do. It would be madness to
confide in Pen.

Notwithstanding her excitement Pauline did sleep soundly that night
before her birthday. No sooner had her head touched the pillow than sweet
unconsciousness visited her. She slept without dreaming, and was at last
awakened by the shouts of her sisters.

"Paulie, get up. It's your birthday. Oh, do dress yourself fast! There's
such a lot of fun going on! We are to have a whole holiday, and Aunt
Sophy is so delightful. And what do you think? She has dragged father out
of his study, and he is standing in the very middle of the lawn. He has a
huge, untidy-looking parcel in his hands, and he looks as if