"Do you suppose he'll get lost, Jean, if you don't happen to meet him? What makes you take the time to go to the train?"
"Why, do you suppose I'd let him come all that distance without meeting him? What are you thinking about, Elizabeth?"
"Well, don't try to do too much to-morrow, for you've got to save some strength for your week at New Haven. Tom, being so particular about girls, will want his sister to look her prettiest, especially as she's to be the solitary representative of his large family. There's the bell! Hadn't we better stop talking and go to bed?"
"Yes, Beth, I suppose so; but I'm not a bit sleepy to-night. I could sit up till midnight and just talk. You go to bed. I think I'll just read a little more of this story and perhaps I'll get sleepy."
"Oh, don't read any more, Jean; you'll be sleepy enough after you once get into bed. It's excitement that makes you feel so wide awake."
"All right, dear, I'll do as you say. You see I do need you to make me take care of myself," and the two happy but tired girls were soon in their beds and asleep.
Jean had set the alarm clock for half-past five o'clock, and dressing in some old clothes started for the field back of the dormitories where it was white with daisies. She was chairman of the committee to make the daisy-chain, and was anxious that it be a success. She found four of the other girls ahead of her filling great baskets which they had brought for the purpose. After they had picked all they could possibly carry they went up to the gymnasium and began weaving the chain. When they arrived, it was long after the breakfast hour, but one girl, more thoughtful than the others, had brought a box or two of crackers and so saved her starving companions. More girls arrived every few minutes, and all worked hard, so that they were able to finish the long chain about half-past nine o'clock. They looked much the worse for wear and their dresses were wet and stained from the flowers, and Jean's hair was fast coming down round her face and neck. Her dress was badly torn in the front where she had stepped upon it in her haste to get into the gymnasium.
As she and Elizabeth and Anne were hurrying down the Row to Merton, Anne, looking down toward the station, spied a young man coming in their direction, with a suit-case in his hand. "Here comes some one's man," she said. "Hope he's early enough. Evidently some one forgot to meet him."
"Why, girls," exclaimed Jean, "there's something strangely familiar about him. I do believe it's my brother Tom. He must have taken an earlier train than I wrote him about. What a sight I am to meet him! I had planned to dress in my very best and go down to the ten-thirty train, and here I am looking more like a tramp than anything else. It is Tom, and I can't help how I look; I'm going to meet him," and she ran down the Row and was soon in her brother's arms, while the other girls hurried into the dormitory away from sight.