ook' has spoiled my whole summer for
me," she said, her lips pouting rebelliously. "I wish I hadn't gone back
to the old school anyway. I might have known it would bring me bad luck.
Oh, here comes Laura," and her face brightened as she saw the familiar
figure of her chum swinging up the street. "I wonder what she wants.
Whatever it is, she seems to be in a terrible hurry about it."

"Hello, what's the rush?" she sang out, as Laura Jordon ran up the steps
of the porch.

"It's--it's that--that Nanny goat Amanda Peabody!" cried Laura, panting a
little, for she had indeed been in a hurry. "What do you think the old
sneak has been up to now?"

"What?" queried Billie, as she moved over to make room for her chum in
the seat beside her. "Telling tales again?"

"How did you guess it?" cried Laura, her face flushing with indignation.
"And about you, Billie! Oh, I could have killed her!"

"Well, we expected it, didn't we?" Billie asked, in a matter-of-fact
tone. "We knew when we saw her looking in at the window that that was
exactly what she would do."

"Well, I know. But she went to the janitor about it." And Laura looked as
if that in some way magnified the offense.

"Well, there wasn't any one else to go to," remarked Billie reasonably.

"Goodness! aren't you even mad about it?" asked Laura, her blue
eyes snapping.

"Not particularly," replied Billie, for she was beginning to be terribly
tired of the whole subject. How she hated that imbecile "Girl Reading a
Book" and Amanda Peabody and--and--everybody!

"I got all over being angry with Amanda Peabody long ago," she said in
answer to Laura's incredulous look. "If I should get that way every time
she did anything, I'd never live to grow up!"

In spite of her indignation, Laura chuckled.

"I never did think of it in that way," she admitted, adding, after a
minute's thought: "Billie, dear, haven't you thought of some way you
might pay for the statue? I didn't sleep a wink last night for
thinking of it."

"Neither did I," said Billie gloomily, forgetting that she had in reality
slept very soundly. "Chet and I have started a fund with a dollar fifteen
of his and seventy-five cents of mine. That's as far as we have got so
far. I did think of Uncle Bill," she added slowly, mentioning a great
uncle who occasionally visited them.

"Great! Uncle Bill!" repeated Laura, pricking up her ears. "The uncle who
used to trot you on his knee and call you 'Bill's Billie'?"

"Ye