It's Alice Jallow, and I don't like her
very much. What is she doing in our crowd anyway?"

"That's what I would like to know," growled Will. "We had just enough
before. I don't know who's going to take care of her."

"Will, don't be ungallant," warned his sister. "Play the game. Probably
there's some explanation, anyway."

But to the Little Captain, as she watched the quartette approaching,
there seemed no plausible explanation. Why should Allen be paired off
with "this Jallow girl"? Betty knew very little of the latter except
that she was always trying to get in where she was not wanted. Well, she
certainly was not wanted now. Oh, why did Allen look so happy? If "this
Jallow girl" had her, Betty's, escort, where did she come in? Hot tears
of anger and mortification rose to her eyes, but she drove them back
mercilessly and her greeting to the newcomers was as merry as ever.

"Hello, everybody!" she called. "You surely took long enough to get
here."

"Hello, Betty! This is----" Amy paused, then went on rather awkwardly.
"You see, Alice happened to be at the house when the boys came
and--well--we brought her along," she finished, lamely.

"And here I am," said Alice effusively. "I do hope I'm not putting any
one out. The idea of visiting the gypsy camp was so fascinating that I
simply couldn't resist the temptation. I think you might have let me in
on it in the first place," and she looked reproachfully at Allen.

That young gentleman had been sending imploring looks in Betty's
direction over Alice Jallow's head, which the former had chosen
absolutely to ignore. Now, being thus appealed to, he smiled down at
Alice.

"It certainly was a grave oversight on our part," he said.

Betty felt as if her little world had been turned upside down and she
wanted to shake somebody--it didn't much matter who it was--but shake
somebody she must, good and hard!

Just at this critical moment up came the two missing ones, Mollie and
Frank--and a third.

"Now, who is that?" thought the poor Little Captain in despair. "If this
keeps on, we shall have the whole town assembled pretty soon. Oh, dear!"

"Betty, this is a friend of mine, Jack Sanford," Frank introduced him in
his own pleasant way. "He's not such a bad chap when you get to know him
well," he added, while his friend thanked him, ironically.

Betty acknowledged the introduction gaily. If Allen liked "this Jallow
girl," why, he could, that was all! and she was not go