. Contractors had
been engaged, and on Monday work would begin. The house was to be built
as soon as possible, and Peter Morrison had arranged that the garage was
to be built first. This he meant to occupy as a residence so that he
could be on hand to superintend the construction of the new home and to
protect, as far as possible, the natural beauty and the natural growth
of the location.

Early Sunday morning Linda and Katy, with a full lunch box and a full
gasoline tank, slid from the driveway and rolled down the main street of
Lilac Valley toward the desert.

"We'll switch over and strike San Fernando Road," said Linda, "and I'll
scout around Sunland a bit and see if I can find anything that will
furnish material for another new dish."

That day was wonderful for Katy. She trotted after Linda over sandy
desert reaches, along the seashore, up mountain trails, and through
canyons connected by long stretches of motoring that was more like
flying than riding. She was tired but happy when she went to bed. Monday
morning she was an interested spectator as Linda dressed for school.

"Sure, and hasn't the old chrysalis opened up and let out the nicest
little lady-bird moth, Katy?" inquired Linda as she smoothed her
gray-gold skirts. "I think myself that this dress is a trifle too good
for school. When I get my allowance next week I think I'll buy me a
cloth skirt and a couple of wash waists and save this for better; but it
really was good of Eileen to take so much pains and send it to me, when
she was busy planning a trip."

Katy watched Linda go, and she noted the new light in her eyes, the new
lift of her head, and the proud sureness of her step, and she wondered
if a new dress could do all that for a girl, she scarcely believed that
it could. And, too, she had very serious doubts about the dress. She
kept thinking of it during the day, and when Eileen came, in the middle
of the afternoon, at the first words on her lips: "Has my dress come?"
Katy felt a wave of illness surge through her. She looked at Eileen so
helplessly that that astute reader of human nature immediately Suspected
something.

"I sent it special," she said, "because I didn't know at the time that I
was going to Riverside and I wanted to work on it. Isn't it here yet?"

Then Katy prepared to do battle for the child of her heart.

"Was the dress ye ordered sent the one Miss Linda was telling ye about?"
she asked tersely.

"Yes, it was," said Eile