-day, and we decided to go down the
creek to-morrow afternoon and take our suppers. There'll be Ellen
Stark, and Georgia Prentiss, and myself. And the boys will be Tom
Angell, and Frank Morris, and Eugene Babler. And Professor Rayburn was
there when we were talking about it, and so we asked him to go along,
but we told him he must take a girl. And he said, 'I wonder if your
sister wouldn't go? I have only met her once, but perhaps on your
recommendation, Miss Fairy----' and he paused with his breath in the
air, inquiringly. So I said, 'Do you mean Prudence, or one of the
twins?' He smiled very kindly and said, 'I mean Prudence.' I said I
was sure you would go, and so you'll have to do it. It's a great
honor, Prue, for all the upper-class girls, and even the unmarried
women on the Fac. are crazy about him. He's so aloof, you know, and
very intelligent. I swelled with pride at the public tribute to the
parsonage!"

"Professor Rayburn! Of the Fac.!" gasped Prudence. "Oh, I'm sure he
didn't mean me, Fairy. You must have misunderstood him. Why, I
wouldn't know what to say to a professor, you know! What is his line?"

"Bugs!" cried Fairy. "He's the biology man. And this is his first
year here, and he's very brilliant,--they say! I'm no authority on
bugs myself. But anyhow every one just raves about him, and he showed
very plainly that he was anxious to get acquainted with you, so you'll
have to go."

"But bugs!" wailed Prudence. "What do I know about bugs! Will he
expect me to know how to divide them,--separate them, you know--"

"I suppose you mean dissect them, you poor child," screamed Fairy.
"Divide bugs! If professor could hear you now, Prue, he would be sadly
disillusioned. You must just trot up-stairs and get one of the twins'
biology books and cram up a little. He won't expect you to be an
advanced buggist. He can give you points himself. Men do love to have
girls appeal to their superior knowledge, and be admiring and deferent.
Maybe he will 'divide one' for you if you ask him 'please.'"

"I won't do it," declared Prudence. "I don't like bugs anyhow,
and--why, the very pictures of them in the twins' books make me
nervous. I won't do it. You can just tell him I don't feel qualified
to go."

"You've got to go," said Fairy sternly, "for I said you would, and he's
counting on it. He's going to phone you this afternoon and ask you
himself. You've got to go."

At that instant, the t