ow some spirit
about it, Hester?"

"Spirit? Why should I? If Miss Watson and Helen thought Emma put up a
better game than I, why should I complain?"

Berenice shrugged her shoulders. She was about to say more when Erma
came down the dormitory steps and crossed the campus toward them. Her
fair hair was piled high on her head in puffs and rolls. She was wrapped
in a long garnet sweater. She looked like a crimson rose as she moved
across the snow.

"Drop the subject," cried Berenice. "Here comes Erma. She takes
exception to everything I say. One cannot express an opinion or offer a
criticism in her presence unless one is taken to task."

"Perhaps it is just as well to let it drop," said Mellie gently. "It is
only a game of basket-ball and not worth a heated discussion."

"Well, peaches," cried Erma cheerily accosting Hester. "Are you really
going home? Won't your Aunt Debby be glad to see you. Tell her I send
her a thousand hugs and a million kisses. How I wish I were going home
to see that dear old daddy of mine. Girls, when you want to see the
grandest man in the world, come home with me and I'll show you my
daddy."

Berenice looked down over her nose.

"It is well to be satisfied," she said.

"It certainly is," replied Erma. "I am glad I am. There's not a father
or mother better than mine and my friends are the best in the world. I
wouldn't exchange them for millions."

She had come close to Hester, and encircling her with her arm, asked,
"When are you coming back, peaches?"

"Monday morning. There comes my car now." She stooped to lift her
suit-case which Marshall had brought down from her room and deposited at
her feet. As she did so, the butterfly end of her tie fluttered,
displaying her quaint pin whose setting gleamed like a spark of fire.

Its scintillation caught Erma's eye. She was about to remark concerning
it, but stopped herself in time. But Berenice, who never let anything
escape her, also caught the sparkle of the stone. More than that, she
saw the expression which passed quickly over Erma's face, and she read
it aright. She made no remark until Hester had boarded the car, had
waved her good-byes and the car had disappeared down the bend of the
road. Then turning, she slipped her arm into Erma's and Mellie's, and so
walking between them, moved toward the building.

"Did you notice the pin Hester had on?" she asked suddenly.

Mellie was wise and did not answer. Erma, who was as transparent as