nd so I have to remind you, that this is to be _my_
Party! I don't ask you to spend your money but just your brains in
this affair."

"Huh! Dorothy! I'm afraid they won't go much further than the cash!"
he returned, but nobody paid attention to this remark, they were so
closely watching Dorothy. She had opened a little leather bag which
lay upon the table and now drew from it a roll of bills. Crisp bank
notes, ten of them, and each of value ten dollars.

"Whew! Where did you get all that, Dorothy Calvert?" demanded Jim
Barlow, almost sternly. To him the money seemed a fortune, and that
his old companion of the truck-farm must still be as poor in purse as
he.

She was nearly as grave as he, as she spread the notes out one by one
in the place where Monty had displayed his meager sum.

"My Great-Aunt Betty gave them to me. It is her wish that I should use
this money for the pleasure of my friends. She says that it is a first
portion of my own personal inheritance, and that if I need more----"

"More!" they fairly gasped; for ten times ten is a hundred, and a
hundred dollars--Ah! What might not be done with a whole one hundred
dollars?

"'Twould be wicked," began James, in an awestruck tone, but was not
allowed to finish, for practical Alfaretta, her big eyes fairly
glittering, was rapidly counting upon her fingers and trying to do
that rather difficult "example" of "how many times will seven go into
one hundred and how much over?" "Seven into ten, once and three; seven
into thirty--Ouch!"

Her computation came to a sudden end. The storm had broken, all
unnoticed till then, and a mighty crash as if the whole house were
falling sent them startled to their feet.

CHAPTER III

THE FIRST AND UNINVITED GUEST

For an instant the group was motionless from fear; then Jim made a
dash for the front entrance whence, apparently, the crash had come.
There had been no thunder accompanying the storm which now raged
wildly over the mountain top, and Alfy found sufficient voice to cry:

"'Tain't no lightnin' stroke. _Somethin's_ fell!"

The words were so inadequate to the description that Molly laughed
nervously, and in relieved tension all followed James forward; only to
find themselves rudely forced back by old Ephraim, gray with fear and
anxiety.

"Stan' back dere, stan' back, you-alls! 'Tis Eph'am's place to gyard
Miss Betty's chillens!"

He didn't look as if the task were an agreeable one and the lads
placed