"Yes," said Joyce thoughtfully. "And we must try and get at the bottom of the affair this time. Must you go now?" for he had risen with a resolute air.
"Indeed I must. I don't know when I have spent such a lazy—and happy—morning!"
"Next time we'll have to banish naughty Dodo. Isn't she a persistent baby?"
"A very charming one, though. Good-morning!"
He made her a stiff little bow, and hurried away without so much as one look behind him. But as he passed the next house, and heard a voice near some upper window crooning a lullaby, he smiled to himself, and whispered,
"Blessed little Dodo! Sweet sleep and happy dreams."
CHAPTER XVIII.
NATE TIERNEY.
The heated spell was succeeded by a week of chilling rains. These made the children appreciate the arcade leading from the park to the school-house, and one afternoon they were romping up and down its cement roadway, just after school was out. Even Mrs. Hemphill's younger brood was there, for the delight of the youngsters in their classes, which embraced lessons in carpentry, husbandry, electrical science, cookery, sewing, nursing, and so on, had so infected them that they simply could not be kept at home.