Chapter 19

who made the first advances toward a reconciliation. Perhaps if he had waited longer, Ivy might have behaved differently, but Hugh never waited.

Sure enough, he soon gave signs of the "coming round" process, but instead of "coming round" to Ivy with a handful of flowers he had found, he gave them to Alene.

After that it was to Alene he came when he had an especially large berry to show; he insisted upon her eating it; he compared the state of his tin cup and hers, and they made a wager as to whose cup would be filled the first.

His celerity amazed Alene.

"How can you fill yours so quickly?"

"By sticking to a good bush when I find one!"

"You girls lose time by flitting from bush to bush like butterflies," added Mat.

"We are more like busy bees, Mat. We gather only the best as we fly! There's Laura, no boy can beat her picking berries," said Ivy.

"I believe there's a good deal in what Hugh says," remarked Laura, "not only in berry picking, but in work and study. We accomplish more by sticking to one thing at a time. They say 'Beware of the man of one book.'"

"I would indeed be beware of him. He'd be an insufferable bore!" retorted Ivy, as she moved away to another bush.

"Now we will transmigrate ourselves into robins and do the 'babes in the wood' act!"

Ivy gazed at the speaker compassionately.

"Has the poor boy gone daffy?"

Mat pointed to the two buckets, by that time filled with berries.

"We will cover them over with leaves!"

"Do you know what Claude does when he's angry or out of humor?" inquired Ivy.

"Throws himself on the floor and kicks, I guess!"

"No, he runs to a corner and hides his face!"

"Well?"

"If I were you, I'd follow his example!"

"But I'm not angry or out of humor with you, Ivy. On the contrary, I feel as mild as a lamb, and I'm so razzle-dazzle-dizzled pleased with getting these buckets filled in spite of you girls, that I could--could--"

"Please don't, whatever it is you could do, be wise and don't do it!"

"What's the time?" asked Laura.

"Eleven A.M.!"

"Are you sure of the A.M.?"

"I'm surer of it than of the eleven! I made a guess at that!"

"We'd better start home. It will take some time to make the jam and get Mrs. Kump's basket ready," said Laura.

Mat made a horn of his hands and gave a yell.

"What's that for?"

"To call our party in."

"We don't want everybody in the field; we're all here but Alene and Hugh."

"Where are they? Haven't seen 'em for some time! Ah, here they come!"

"Hugh took me over to see a thrush's nest," explained Alene. Her face glowed with animation beneath Nettie's pink lined bonnet; her lips and fingers were stained with berries and Laura asked herself if this could be the white-cheeked, forlorn, little Peggy-Alone she had seen standing beside Prince on the terrace just a couple of months before.

They trooped gaily into the carriage, Mat again took the reins and away they went on the return trip.

They came into the town by a different route, which led past the Ramseys' buff cottage.

"There's Vera and her mother and some ladies sitting on the porch," remarked Alene.

"And see, there's Hermione at an upstairs window," said Ivy.

The girls waved their hands to that smiling friend and the boys gallantly doffed their hats as they raced Old Hurricane past the house.

Mrs. Ramsey gazed after the vehicle with a look of amazement. She had obtained a glimpse of the girls, in their print dresses and sunbonnets, but had failed to recognize them.

"Who can they be?"

"They evidently know you," said one of the ladies, smilingly. "Didn't you see that little curly-headed girl swinging her bonnet?"

"Not at us, surely!"

Vera smiled at her mother's shocked tone.

"That was Ivy Bonner; they were waving at Hermione upstairs."

"I thought it looked like Dawson's rig, but surely Alene wasn't--"

"Yes, she was there, with her face all stained with berry juice! I guess they were out picking blackberries!"

Mrs. Ramsey raised her eyes in despair. "What does Fred Dawson mean by allowing it? If that poor child's mother only knew!"