y want
you to like 'em at Green Hill! We'll go the minute your school closes."

"_Must_ we?" she said, nervously.

"I'm afraid we've got to," he said; "you see, I must find out about ways
and means. And Edith would be furious if we didn't come," he ended,
chuckling.

"Is she nice?"

"Why, yes," he said; "she's just a child, of course. Only eleven. But
she and I have great times. We have a hut on the mountain; we go up for
a day, and Edith cooks things. She's a bully cook. Her beloved Johnny
Bennett tags on behind."

"But do you like to be with a _child_?" she said, surprised.

"Oh, she's got a lot of sense. Say, Nelly, I have an idea. While we are
at Green Hill, let's camp out up there?"

"You don't mean stay all night?" she said, flinching. "Oh, wouldn't it
be very uncomfortable? I--I hate the dark."

The sweet foolishness of it enchanted him (baby love feeds on pap!)
"Pitch dark," he teased, "and lions and tigers roaring around, and
snakes--"

"Of course I'll go, if you want me to," she said, simply, but with a
real sinking of the heart.

"Edith adores it," he said. "Speaking of Edith, I must tell you
something so funny. Last summer I was at Green Hill, and one night Mr.
and Mrs. Houghton were away, and there was a storm. Gee, I never saw
such a storm in my life! Edith has no more nerves than a tree, but even
she was scared. Well, I was scared myself."

He had stretched himself out on the sofa, and she was kneeling beside
him, her eyes worshiping him. "_I_ would have been scared to death," she
confessed.

"Well, _I_ was!" he said. "The tornado--it was just about that!--burst
on to us, and nearly blew the house off the hill--and such an infernal
bellowing, and hellish green lightning, you never saw! Well, I was just
thinking about Buster--her father calls her Buster; and wondering
whether she was scared, when in she rushed, in her night-gown. She made
a running jump for my bed, dived into it, grabbed me, and hugged me so I
was 'most suffocated, and screamed into my ear, 'There's a storm!'--as
if I hadn't noticed it. I said--I could hardly make myself heard in the
racket--I yelled, 'Don't you think you'd better go back to your own
room? I'll come and sit there with you.' And she yelled, 'I'm going to
stay here.' So she stayed."

"I think she was a little old for that sort of thing," Eleanor said,
coldly.

He gave a shout of laughter. "Eleanor! Do you mean to tell me you don't
see how awfully funny it