That night Polly consulted the Admiral. Sitting opposite him in the study after dinner, she went over her plans very carefully.

“Each of the girls can give something different. I want to have a birthday party, grandfather dear.”

“But your birthday is in December—” began the Admiral, in faint protest.

“This will be a universal birthday party, everybody’s birthday party. We will have very good refreshments to start with. Crullers always says the success of anything depends on the food. And we’ll decorate the lawn and veranda, and have music too. We won’t charge any admission at all, but every one who comes in, will be handed a nice little silk bag, and told to put in it as many pennies as they are years old.”

“Highway robbery,” exclaimed the Admiral. “Think how it will beggar me, and let everybody know how old I am too.”

“Oh, no, it won’t, because we shall not tell,” Polly promised laughingly. “Isn’t it a good idea? Nearly everybody’s over twenty, and some are even over fifty. We’ll invite all the nice old people in Queen’s Ferry.”

“And treat them as if it were their birthdays, I presume.”

“Oh, yes. And don’t you see, grandfather, if I give that kind of a party, and Isabel has the strawberry lawn fÊte, and the others plan other things, we’ll have quite a lot of money for the trip.”

“It’s worth something to parents and guardians and grandfathers to get rid of you during the summer,” said the Admiral, gravely, but with twinkling eyes. “If this is to be strictly on a business basis, I think that item should be counted in. There should be a sympathy meeting called amongst us to discuss that phase of it. I will give fifty dollars towards a relief fund to send girls away on vacations, myself.”

“Will you?” Polly regarded him with interest, her head a little on one side like a robin as she thought over the proposition. It was a tempting one, but she remembered the code of honor at the Crossbar. “Maybe we’ll have to appeal for help before we get through, but we want to try first, and earn it ourselves. You understand, don’t you, grandfather dear? We don’t want it to happen so—oh, so easily.”

The Admiral declared it was much better to take the cash outright than to wheedle it out by birthday parties, and strawberry festivals, and other “lawless devices,” but Polly went ahead just the same.

Every day, whenever there was a chance, the five met to talk over ways and means. Sue wrestled with the problem for some time, and finally she and Ted put their heads together, and decided to hold an auction.

“You can’t hold an auction unless you have something to sell,” Ruth remonstrated.

“We’ll sell things,” the two promised, and they surely did when the time came.

Isabel held fast to her strawberry fÊte, and Ruth pondered over how she could do her share. Miss Murray had been attracted from the first of the term to this quiet, old-fashioned girl, with the big brown eyes, and spectacles, and serious yet whimsical way with her. She knew that while the other girls had nice homes, and sure prospects, Ruth was dependent on her aunt, and had to make her own way as soon as she left school. Perhaps this bred a sort of kinship in sympathy between them. At all events, Ruth found that nearly every day she would have a talk with Jean.

Finally, they took Miss Calvert into their confidence, and she had a suggestion to make at once.

“Why, Ruth, child, don’t you think you could bring the little lame Ellis boy up in his lessons so he could take the examinations,” she said, hopefully. “Mrs. Ellis was asking me only Sunday how she could manage with him, and he is quite convalescent now. The doctor says his worrying over falling behind will retard his recovery.”

Ruth’s face brightened. The little lame Ellis boy, as every one in Queen’s Ferry called him, was the only child of Payne Ellis, the senior warden at Trinity Church. She knew him well at church. He had been ill with measles for several weeks, and would be certain to miss all of his examinations.

“He wants so much to finish his grammar work this year, and start in the fall at St. Stephen’s Military School, and if he fails, it means another year of eighth grade work,” added Miss Calvert. “I do think you might be able to bring him up in time, Ruth. I will speak to Mrs. Ellis to-night, and let you know.”

The next day Ruth’s face fairly shone with satisfaction.

“Oh, girls, isn’t it good?” she said, as they were going up the broad stairs at noon. “I’ve heard from Mrs. Ellis, and I am to give two hours every day after school, teaching Phil. She says she will give me fifty cents an hour. That’s six dollars a week, and there’ll be five weeks anyway, up to the end of school. The doctor says he mustn’t attempt to go back on account of his eyes.”

“Lucky grandma,” Sue said, emphatically. “That comes of being a walking encyclopedia, while the rest of us must pick strawberries, and auction off all our pet belongings. By the way, we are going to hold our auction, Ted and I, on Saturday next. Ted has the first poster all made for it. She hung it beside the looking glass in the hall, where no one could possibly miss it.”

It was a hand-made poster. Ted was the artist. She had used the plain ecru-tinted “scratch paper,” as the girls called it, that they all used in class for scribbling. An original drawing of Sue weeping over the sale of her treasures occupied the top space, while Ted stood on a chair, holding out articles invitingly. Underneath it read:

To be held on Saturday forenoon, at the residence of Miss Sue Warner, 35 Elmwood Road. The personal belongings of Miss Warner and Miss Edwina Moore will be sold at a great sacrifice at ten o’clock sharp. The sale includes,

Various toilette articles, and all the interesting and valuable objects of art which made Miss Moore’s room in Calvert Hall, the past winter, a place of diversion and envy.

“The resident girls are all coming to the sale,” Ted announced, happily, shutting one eye, as she looked at the announcement. “I think that is very enticing and mysterious, don’t you, Polly?”

“It’s lovely,” Polly declared, delightedly. “Let’s send out copies of it to everybody.”

“I’ll help letter them, Ted,” Crullers said, anxiously. “I wish you’d let me help, girls, even if I can’t be in on the fun.”

“Well, so you shall, dear,” Polly promised, and after school hours, they all went up to Ted’s room, and made copies of the placard. It was Ted’s first year as a resident pupil, and she had felt somewhat divided from the others at first. Her father and mother were away from Queen’s Ferry, at the town house in Washington, and it necessitated Ted’s occupying a room at the Hall.

“We would have held the auction here,” Sue said, “but nobody would have come except the girls. This way, I shall sell pink popcorn and peanuts, while Ted is the auctioneer.”

“I don’t see what you’re going to sell,” Ruth put in, soberly. “You’ll destroy public confidence in all of us if it’s a joke.”

“A joke. Listen to her, Ted.” Sue shook her head sadly. “Indeed it is not a joke. We’re giving up all we dare to, aren’t we, Ted? Mother says she has to keep a watch on everything in the house for fear it will be auctioned off. But she’s donated a few things too, to help us out. She made the mystery boxes.”

“Never heard of such things,” said Ruth.

“That’s the charm,” smiled back Sue. “Just you wait till Saturday. I do hope we’ll have a good crowd.”

“We must send these to all our friends,” Polly said, and each girl took a supply home with her.

But it remained for Crullers to spring the grand surprise of Saturday. Not until the fateful hour of ten did the girls discover what Crullers had done with her poster. Sue’s home was a beautiful, old-fashioned house set far back from the main river road, and surrounded by trees. The auction was to be held in the music room, and well-filled it was too, by ten, with the girls from Calvert Hall, and a lot of Queen’s Ferry girls besides, and even some of the mothers and grown sisters. But suddenly Ruth glanced out of the broad bay window, and cried:

“Here come a lot of the choir boys, Polly. How on earth did they know about it? Rehearsal is just over, and they’re all coming here.”

Polly hurried to the window. It was quite true. Coming innocently and interestedly up the broad walk from the road, were about fifteen of the older boys from St. Stephen’s.

“How did they ever find out,” she exclaimed, and then all at once, she caught sight of Crullers’ face. It was quite red, and a little bit frightened too.

“Polly, Polly,” she faltered, “I did it. I tacked one of the posters on a fence near the Parish House.”

“Double penalty,” said Ted, under her breath. “First for giving us away, second, for tacking notices on fences.”

“You cannot help it now, girls, anyway,” said Jean, smiling over the mishap. “And boys are not so terrible, anyway. I’ll manage them. They will probably buy up all the candy, and that will help out.”

So with dignity, and all cordial courtesy, the boys were received, and ushered into the music room, and while their eyes fairly danced with fun and mischief, they soon forgot all but the excitement of the sale, and became, as Jean had prophesied, the best and most spirited bidders.

The candy sold first, boxes of fudge, and nut creams the girls had made themselves, and nut glacÉs. Also, Sue did a thriving business at her stand near the door, in popcorn and peanuts. Ted stood on a chair, and was auctioneer, and she made a good one. Tactfully she chose things that she knew certain girls had set their hearts on, and ran rival bidders against each other. Even the cushions from her couch at the Hall went, and last of all, the girls put up the historic chafing dish of the old Hungry Six, the original club that had preceded the Vacation Club. It was bid in by one of the Senior girls, after a spirited fight for it, and brought three dollars and seventy-five cents.

The Mystery Boxes were bid in lively by the boys too. All were very much interested in the small Japanese boxes. They promised so much just by keeping closed tightly, as Polly said.

Mrs. Warner had prepared these herself, as her share in the auction, and as one by one they were opened, the contents made the next lot go at a still higher figure. Inside each were quaint Jap novelties, little fortunes and mottoes on crepe paper, animals made of bamboo shoots and wisps of tinted cotton, puzzles, tiny dishes, and trinkets, all from the far islands of cherry blossoms.

When it was finally over, and the last buyer had passed down the walk, the five girls gathered in the harvest at the little tea table, and counted it over jubilantly.

“Thirty-two dollars, and twenty cents,” announced Ruth triumphantly. “Isn’t that fine, girls?”

“Who bid in the kitten?” asked Sue.

“Crullers,” said Polly. “Fifty cents. Wish we had thought to raise a lot of kittens, and sell them. Maybe for really trained kittens that could do tricks, we could have charged a fancy price like they do for polo ponies, don’t you know, girls?”

“Pocahontas was trained,” insisted Sue. “I trained her myself. She could eat ice-cream out of a saucer without getting into it, and she could play ball. Crullers got a bargain.”

“Shall we have the strawberry fÊte a week from to-day?” asked Isabel. “That is my share, you know.”

“Won’t it cost a lot for berries and cream, Isabel?”

“All donated by the Lee family for the good of the cause. Father says it is worth a full spring crop to see me taking an interest in outdoor sports.”

“Instead of pomps and vanities?” queried Ted, dodging as a cushion hurtled past her.

“Be good, please, Ted. This is strictly business. I do think that each of the girls should bring a cake, anyway,—a very large cake—”

“How can I bring a cake when I am a resident pupil at Calvert, goose?” Ted demanded. “I shall bring store doughnuts.”

“I tell you, Ted—coax Miss Calvert to donate a lot of Annie May’s macaroon bars. They are delicious. I think cards will do for invitations to that, don’t you, girls? Isabel, you write better than the rest of us. You just write a nice little invitation announcement card—you know what kind I mean—and I’ll make out our social list.”

“Indeed, I’m not going to do that, Ruth,” protested Polly. “It costs too much in postage. I sent Stoney out to deliver the invitation to my birthday party. All persons under fifty were undesirable, I told grandfather.”

“Listen,” exclaimed Isabel suddenly. “I wonder if any one of you girls has thought of this. Mother was talking over summer dresses with Miss Gaskell, the dressmaker who sews for us fall and spring. I heard her saying something about this dress for me, and that one, and it gave me an idea. Of course, we girls won’t need much up there in the wilds, and I said one white dress would do, and cut out the fluffy-ruffly ones—”

“You never gave up the fluffy ones, Lady Vanitas!” cried Sue.

“Yes, I did, Sue,” Isabel said, quite seriously. “And when I told mother of my plan, she said she would help me. I asked if she would give me half of everything I gave up—”

“What is the market value of flesh pots, Polly?” asked Ted, teasingly.

“Just you try it yourself, Ted, and you’ll be surprised. I was. Mother says it will be twenty to thirty dollars to add to my summer outing. It’s worth while giving up things at that rate.”

“Isabel, you’re a wonder,” Polly laughed. “I’ll try that with grandfather to-night, and coax Aunty Welcome to tell just what it costs to dress me. Couldn’t we all wear khaki and gunny sacks?”

“What are gunny sacks, Polly?”

“I don’t know. I heard Stoney say once that all he wore till he was ten years old was a gunny sack, and I thought it must be awfully comfy. Say, Ruth, did you write to the railroads to find out about summer rates?”

“Miss Murray said she’d attend to that. Don’t forget that I will have a bunch to hand in to the treasury too, from teaching. And I’m also getting in an extra hour taking Jack Ellis out in a wheel chair, after his lessons.”

“If we get as far as the ranch, we’ll be all right,” Ted exclaimed. “If we haven’t enough to come home on, all our lonely friends and relatives will be glad to get us back at any cost.”

“But we’ll have enough—” began Ruth.

“Don’t trouble about it, girls,” Mrs. Warner spoke up, as they all gathered at the door for a last good-bye. “We are in hearty sympathy with you, especially since you have developed this independence. Every ten or fifteen dollars that you raise is a good help westward, and also strengthens your self-respect, and self-reliance. It is one of the happiest surprises in life when we suddenly find out we can swim alone.”

“Or fly from the home nest,” added Sue.

“Well, we’re trying hard to flutter,” Polly called back merrily, as they went down the walk. “It will be a wonderful flight—maybe.”

“But it’s the season for May bees,” answered Mrs. Warner, smiling. “Keep up your courage, and the good fight.”