w can
we wait that long?"

"Nobody knows," Jessie answered, cheerily; "but as long as we have to get
ready, we might as well begin now. Come on; let's see who'll be dressed
first girls----" which precipitated a general stampede for the door.

As Lucile hurried along toward the station it really seemed as though her
feet had wings. The thought of meeting her guardian again, of talking to
her in the old familiar way of the old familiar things--all this made her
say to herself over and over again, "Oh, I don't believe anybody was ever
so happy before." She could see in her mind's eye that old bright, cheery
smile of her guardian flash out as she said, as she had said so many
times before, "Well, how are my girls to-day?"

To-ot! The shrill wail of the locomotive whistle broke rudely through her
revery and brought her to a sudden realization that if she didn't bestir
herself, Mrs. Wescott would be at the station with no one to meet her.

"Oh," cried Lucile to herself, "and I thought I was hurrying just as fast
as I could. Well, I'm in for a race with the train, it seems. I wonder
what the girls would say," she chuckled as she ran. "This is almost as
good as a canoe race."

Either the train had been farther off than she thought when Lucile heard
the whistle or she had run faster than she had ever run in her life; the
result was the same--Lucile won!

Just as she breathlessly reached the station, the great locomotive came
thundering around the last curve.

CHAPTER VI

"OH, FIRE, LONG YEARS AGO----"

Lucile's heart beat fast as the train came to a standstill and a crowd of
people began to pour out.

"Where is she, where is she?" she cried, scanning one after another,
speaking to those she knew, while, at the same time, looking past them
with such an intent gaze that more than one turned to look back at her
and remark with the shake of a head, "There's something up."

Lucile was just about in despair when, at the far end of the platform,
she descried her.

With a cry she ran forward and, throwing her arms about her guardian's
neck with a little hysterical sob, she exclaimed, "Oh, I thought you
weren't coming."

For a moment she was held close while the voice she loved said, gently,
"You don't suppose I could stay away when I had made up my mind to come,
do you?"

"Oh, no; I knew in my heart you would be here," drawing herself away and
looking at her guardian with such happiness written on her face that