iven up and I count on you
more than anybody else to keep things going! With you and Mr. Seth--if
he will--the Party cannot fail!" and Alfy's honest face was alight
again.

It had proved that the "Learned Blacksmith" "would" most gladly. At
heart he was as young as any of them all and he had his own reasons
for wishing to be at Deerhurst for a time. He had been more concerned
than Dorothy perceived over the missing one hundred dollars, and he
was anxious about the strange guest who had appeared in the night and
who was so utterly unable to give an account of herself.

So he had come, as had they all and now assembled for their first meal
together, and Dorothy's hospitable anxiety had wholly vanished. Of
course, all would go well. Of course, they would have a jolly time.
The only trouble now, she thought, would be to choose among the many
pleasures offering.

There had been a new barn built at Deerhurst that summer, and a large
one. This Mr. Winters had decreed should be the scene of their gayest
hours with the big rooms of the old mansion for quieter ones; and to
the barn they went on that first evening together, as soon as supper
was over and the dusk fell.

"Oh! how pretty!" cried Helena Montaigne, as she entered the place
with her arm about Molly's waist, for they two had made instant
friends. "I saw nothing so charming while I was abroad!"

"Didn't you?" asked the other, wondering. "But it _is_ pretty!" In
secret she feared that Helena would be a trifle "airish," and she felt
that would be a pity.

"Oh! oh! O-H!" almost screamed Dorothy, who had not been permitted to
enter the barn for the last two days while, under the farrier's
direction, the boys had had it in charge. Palms had been brought from
the greenhouse and arranged "with their best foot forward" as Jim
declared. Evergreens deftly placed made charming little nooks of
greenery, where camp-chairs and rustic benches made comfortable
resting places. Rafters were hung with strings of corn and gay-hued
vegetables, while grape-vines with the fruit upon them covered the
stalls and stanchions. Wire strung with Chinese lanterns gave all the
light was needed and these were all aglow as the wide doors were
thrown open and the merry company filed in.

"My land of love!" cried Alfaretta. "It's just like a livin'-in-house,
ain't it! There's even a stove and a chimney! Who ever heard tell of a
stove in a barn?"

"You have! And I, too, for the first time," said