"Quite true," responded Grace gaily. "I am sorry I had to be reminded. To prove my sorrow I will help you with your packing, when I ought to be doing my own."
"Come on, then," challenged Elfreda. She ran lightly up the stairs, her three friends at her heels.
"I'll pour the lemonade while you and Grace pack," volunteered Miriam.
"I choose to do nothing," said Anne lazily. "I am going to work all summer. I need a little rest now."
"You won't know where you are to be for the summer until Mr. Forest writes, will you?" asked Miriam.
"The Originals will be lonesome without you, Anne," mourned Grace. "You must be sure to visit me. That is, unless you are too far west."
"I am going to have a visitor of my own," announced Elfreda proudly. "You can never guess who it is."
"I know," laughed Anne, after a moment's reflection. "It is the Anar—Miss Atkins, I mean."
"Who told you?" demanded Elfreda. "It is true, though. She is coming to Fairview the last two weeks in July, and I am going to give her the time of her life. Just think, girls, she has never had any girl friends until she came here. Her mother died when she was a baby, and a prim old aunt kept house for them. Her father is Professor Archibald Atkins, that Natural Scientist who went to Africa and was held captive by a tribe of savages for two years.
"Living with the heathen didn't improve him, for when he came home he behaved so queerly that people thought him crazy. Then the aunt, who was the professor's sister, died, and poor Laura had to live alone with her father in a great big country house. Finally, she grew so tired of it she asked him to send her to college. She had always had a tutor, so she was ready for the entrance examinations, but she had never associated with other girls and didn't know much about them. I can't feel sorry enough for calling her names and imitating her. We had a long talk at Martell's the other night and I am going to be her knight errant from now on."