colate in the pocket of her suit before the girls could see
it.

She would have succeeded if Vi had not accidentally touched her elbow at
that moment, knocking the package of chocolate from her hand and into the
aisle of the car where it lay, face up, accusingly.

Billie stretched out an eager hand for it, but Laura was just before her.

"Aha!" she cried triumphantly, waving the little brown rectangle aloft.
"Candy! Where'd you get it, Billie Bradley?" She turned swiftly upon
Billie, whose face was the color of a particularly gorgeous beet. Vi and
Connie looked on delightedly.

"Goodness! anybody would think it was a crime to have candy," cried
Billie indignantly. "You give it to me, Laura, or----" She made a grab
for her property, but Laura snatched it back out of her reach.

"No, you don't," she said, putting her hands behind her determinedly.
"Not till you tell us where you got it."

"Well I'm not going to," said Billie crossly. "It's none of your
business." And she turned away and looked steadily out of the window.

"Give it back to her, Laura," begged Vi. "It isn't fair to tease her so."

"Well then, she shouldn't tease so beautifully," Laura retorted, as,
relenting, she slipped Teddy's gift back into Billie's pocket.

At that moment they were startled by a fearful racket--a sound as if all
the South Sea pirates that had ever been born had gathered together and
were all quarreling at once.

There was a great craning of necks as startled passengers tried to see
what it was all about and the girls fairly jumped from their seats--for
the racket sounded in their very ears.

Across the aisle from them there was a parrot--a great green and red
parrot that at that moment was hanging by its claws to the roof of its
cage and was still emitting the raucous squawks that sounded like the
talking of a hundred pirates all rolled into one.

An elderly woman who looked as if she might be a spinster of the type
generally known as "old maid" was doing her best to silence the bird
while she fished wildly in her bag for something.

She found what she was looking for--a heavy black cloth, and, with a sigh
of relief, flung it across the cage. Immediately the parrot's uproar
subsided to a muttering and a moment later stopped altogether.

Passengers who had craned their necks dropped back in their seats
chuckling, picked up magazines or papers or whatever they had been
reading where they had left off, and peace settled over