s series of happenings that added flavor to her whole school life, and gave he

ell under way with an excellent teacher, decided to have a "bacon bat," after the custom o

r arms, there were no daintily packed little shoe-boxes of sandwiches. There was just the jar of bacon strips in a paper bag, the bottle of olives in another paper bag, and the two dozen rolls, a generous supply, in the biggest paper bag of all. These were the simple requisites for a bacon bat, and even the olives were not necessary, Katherine termed them useless frills. There was a tiny box of

the counter and offered you a dozen or so, loose, when you bought your bacon. But Peggy had wan

thought to ask as they strolled, laughi

House," cried three girls at

in concern. It didn't s

down to the water-because, of course, we can hardly have our fire except on some s

making their way in the direction of a great empty-looking

there, do they

-sh-

d strange to her that after the girls had chosen this place with such unanimous enthusiasm they should assume such an air of discomfort and mystery now that they had come. She studied the old house, dignified e

ce sunny place with a little stream to drink out of, and one big tree for shade? It's so dark and overgro

in the river, and there is a grape-vine swing on the bank that goes sailing way out over the water with you. W

y mean cows or snakes," sighed P

the water, and Florence and Dorothy Trowbrid

" asked Peggy suddenly, "when we get

over an armful of nice dry chi

ight away, for the walk had made them hungry-or, perhaps, they hadn't needed the walk: healthy girls like healthy boys are always hungry. But Florence reminded them that their bacon would simply be burned to a crisp if they thrust it in the flames now, so they waited a few minutes, reluctantly enough, until the red and blue sparks sputtered down to a s

ver come, I suppose you could find the ashes, on this flat rock, left by every class that ever went

m the river and passed it to poor Florence, who

ll smoke," she warned delig

up there, would be glad to have it. If he can smell the smoke of this little feast-with that lovely amber coffee Dorothy is making-I guess he wishes he was a g

one and poised an oliv

ou mean?"

r, you know,"

fee?-I should think

he world. He used to own most of this town, but everything has drifted away from him. He never goes anywhere-nobody ever sees him. He wouldn't wan

u mean to tell me the man that lives in Gloomy H

d Peggy a fresh roll with a crisp slice of bacon temptingly projecting from the ends. "He couldn't have be

a little patch of light on her brown-gold hair. She was a vivid little person, with laughing black eyes and cheeks that fla

said at last, her crooked dimple flic

tery about it, I tell you-and, in spite of story books, nobody likes to probe too deeply into mysteries. Some people even say that a

e crumbs out of

wnspeople should stay away from him and leave him poor," she said. "What has that to do with my making him some coff

nds, the girls gathered around to tell Peggy many harrowing incidents connected with the great house

ings back at school for us to eat ourselves-it seems, well, piggish. Wouldn't it be lovely to demonstrate our next lesson by bringing all the materials up to Gloomy House and cooking up a big, wonderful dinner, and ha

d for the vote, her eyes shining with eager

she had been with them so short a time,

you he'd bite anybody, fairly, that dreamed of trying to offer him charity? Peggy, I believ

y, sitting down to think i

ht of cluttering her joyous way with impossibilities. Once a plan s

le to the school," timidly sug

me," Florence

'll have the accounts put in the town paper, so he'll see what we're doing, and then-" her eyes shone and she could hardly talk fast enough to let the girls see the glory of he

ng herself to such a daring decision. "Ye-es, I think we might

the timid one. "Let's appo

one," shouted the other girls gleefull

ed vainly to smooth back her flying gold-toned hair. "Right-NOW!" she

others drew closer together as Peggy actually turned h

ness of the thing she had undertaken, they watch