m; and so did Mamie Sue, with the treacherous
chocolate smears on her mouth, after having promised not to give it to
him unless she just had to.

"Phyllis, if Tony says Kitten Patrol to you one single time more,
something will have to be done to him that is serious," said Miss
Priscilla, frowning at Tony with a frown that only seemed to bring out
the dimple in her left cheek. "Now congratulate her nicely, Tony!"

[Illustration: The Colonel handed me the medal]

"Madam," said Tony, straightening up and looking so much like the
Colonel that it was funny (but of course Tony has learned
impersonation), "accept my heartfelt congratulations for thus
achieving a triumph of kittenism. Will that do, Miss Prissy Bubble?"
And again we all laughed, the Colonel the most of all, and even Belle
a little, too.

"Phyllis, you are one perfectly good brick," Tony said suddenly,
dropping the teasing of Miss Priscilla from his voice; and he looked
at me with just as affectionate an expression in his squinty eyes as
when he looks at Pink Chadwell. It is a great thing for a girl to feel
that a fine boy likes her as much as he does his most chosen boy
comrade. I felt that keenly.

"Thanks, everybody," I managed to say in an awkward way that mortified
me into being unable to patch it up with any kind of brilliant remark
following.

One of the things that had struck me so dumb was that I thought I had
refused to be the Girl Scout Leader because of my disgrace, and nobody
had paid any attention to my refusal. Thus it is, a person cannot
escape either fame or disgrace because other people take more interest
in both than you do yourself, and do not let you forget.

"And now that the Colonel has made you his speech, Phyllis," said Miss
Priscilla, "I want you to come down to the Presbyterian Church parlors
with me to a joint meeting of our Relief Society with the Methodist
Relief. They want to make you an honorary member of both on account of
the way you have dealt with the Satterwhites, who have for years been
one of the greatest troubles to all of us. Of course this is not a
medal, but it is an expression of hearty esteem, and I hope they will
get the meeting over nicely without any discussion or argument coming
up from either side on the charity question."

By that time I was so numb from having shocks that I let her and the
Colonel lead me down the street, while Tony went in to keep Lovelace
Peyton from fretting for the diphtheria lesso