ve squeezed into it; and so
what else can I do?"

"If we could only get someone to help us," said Marita, innocently,
seeming to take Bess literally. "One of the boys----"

She was interrupted by the laughter of the others, for Marita was a
newcomer in Chelton, and though Cora and her chums had taken her up,
attracted by her nice ways, Marita did not yet appreciate her new
friends.

"Don't mind what Bess says, my dear," spoke Cora, as she saw that
Marita was a little hurt at the laughter. "As for the boys, please
don't suggest such a thing. If they came in now, we'd never get
through packing. I hope----"

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" declaimed a voice in the
doorway, and the faces of two young men peered in.

"Too late!" exclaimed Cora, as she saw her brother Jack and his chum,
Walter Pennington. "The boys are here! Any more of you, Jack?" she
asked, as she crowded some feminine finery out of sight behind her
back.

"No. Why?"

"Because I'm going to give general orders for you to depart at once,
and I want to include everyone. Begone!"

"Heartless one!" murmured Walter, sliding into the room under Jack's
arm. "Just when we came to help you, too!"

"Here!" called Bess, from her position, Turkish fashion, amid a
billowy pile of garments, "Help me up first, Wallie, my dear, and then
sit on my trunk."

"Why, is that the throne seat?" he asked, as he extended his hand, and
pretended to find it extremely difficult to lift Bess to her feet.

"No, but the lid needs closing, and I can't do it. Sit on it, that's a
good fellow," and she extended to him a chocolate from the tips of her
fingers, which fingers Walter pretended to bite.

"Now you really must go," said Cora, seriously, when Walter had
managed to close the trunk. "Come, Jack, we have to get through by
five o'clock," and she glanced at her brother, who was in earnest
conversation with Marita in her corner.

Jack paid no attention to his sister, and Walter was somewhat
surprised to see Bess, after looking with satisfaction at the trunk he
had closed for her, open it again.

"Well, I like that!" he exclaimed, with pretended indignation, "after
me nearly breaking my back to close that lid----"

"I just wanted the things compressed, Walter dear," said Bess,
sweetly. "I've got a lot more to put in, and I couldn't squeeze in
another piece until they had been crowded down a bit. Now run along,
little boy."

"Come on, Jack!" called Walter, as he