"I'll tell you the most surprising secret you ever heard, but not until we get to the Omnibus House and are seated in a row on the old stone steps behind it." "Then let's away!" exclaimed Nora.

"We won't need our hats.

Two parasols will be enough to shade us from the sun." Five minutes later the four girls trooped down the steps and strolled through the familiar streets in the direction of their old playground.
The afternoon sun beamed so gently and kindly upon them that it was not long before they closed their parasols and walked with their heads uncovered to his tempered rays.

To see a bevy of girls walking in the quiet streets of the little city without hats was the commonest sight, and the quartette attracted little attention as they sauntered along.
After leaving Oakdale behind, it was not more than ten minutes' walk across the fields to the quaint old stone house which had been the scene of so many of their high school revels.
"What a lot of good times we have had here," mused Nora reminiscently, as they paused before the quaint old building, that had once been a tavern, and was, goodness knew, how many years old.

"Shall you ever forget the time we buried the hatchet ?" "Never!" chorused three emphatic voices.
"Wasn't Julia Crosby too ridiculous for words ?" declared Jessica.