n, do you, Tess?" Dot seriously asked her sis

an there is the very fellow who

-o-

Tess. "He's the young man Tom Jonah

ophical Dot, "he can't

s here with us. I-I'd feel better

th and Agnes, however, were really troubled by the meeting with the Gypsies; the fo

almost at once she disappeared, dropping the curtain. S

ask us a dime each. 'Cross their palms with silver,' yo

ernoon, Pearl," ventured Ruth, as one of t

time," said this man. "They will have

is expression. But she was searching her chain-purse for dimes. It did not look to R

ss creature, and leaned upon a crutch. Gray strands of coarse hair straggled over her wrinkled forehead. She had

. Ruth watched her closely for, it seemed, s

struck at the creature with her crutch; he ran away yelping. She was plainly

d hag came forward. She did not speak to

l. "Isn't she enough to give y

sides Ruth and Agnes, did not feel so very pleasant. When one of the fellows too

w in the ribs. "He means nothing harmful. Here is Zaliska, the Queen of the Romany. She is very old

"But a quarter's too much. Show her your pal

nged around the party of girls in such a way that, no matter w

tened!" whispered Agn

ren," Ruth said, her first

her own right hand tremblingly. The hag was mumbling something or other, but

one. The back of her hand seemed wrinkled and puckered; but

old woman-not a rea

irl almost as much as the rough men frighte

hen the girl would have pulled it

et you away with your friends-qu

. The creature clung to her hand and mu

you, Ruth?" demanded

osed fortune-teller, shaking her hea

"Oh! let us get out of here. Th

dare," began the

outing to oxen. The Gypsies glanced swiftly and covertly at on

y. Into the glade, along a wood-path from the thicker timber, came two spans of oxen dragging three great l

h. "We'll keep close to this lumberma

er," cried Pearl. "She can't even tell me whethe

" said the tall man, suavely.

e Poole, snatching her hand aw

zed their sisters and were hur

, cracking the whiplash before the leading span

road where we can get the stage

ing right there

cried the Corn

un!" shouted some of

of the rear pair of wheels. The Gypsies began gathering around and some of them mut

ou want to keep away from that Gypsy camp. They are a tough lot-very different from the crowd that camped

enetrated "Queen Zaliska's" disguise. She believed that the supposed old cro

at they had been in peril from the Gypsies. She believed that, had they

s. Once on the highway, Pearl declared the auto-stage would be along in ten minu

for ten cents each the girls rode into Pleasant Cove. There were only a few

olony was set up, but the stage went right past Spoondrift bungalow, and the g

urselves, girls, and go as far as you like," he said, waving both ha

fall. Then, however, everything was ready for their occupancy

zzled by the disguised "queen" and wondered secretly what the masqu