"I beg your pardon, Laura?" she said frigidly.

Laura reddened.

"I--I--meant Palm Beach," she stammered. "Er--er--I should say, I meant Tallaha.s.see."

The girls who were in the secret of Grace's forthcoming trip giggled and looked meaningly at each other, and the recitation went on. But the slowest quarter hours will pa.s.s at last, and on this day they merged into hours and finally brought three o'clock and freedom.

"That's over at last! Did you ever live through such a long day?" asked Nan, as she put away her books and took her coat from the form. "Now for Mrs. Bragley."

"But first," said Bess, s.n.a.t.c.hing up a small bonbon dish from the table, "we've got to have funds, and 'the collection will now be taken.' My, but you girls are generous!" she exclaimed exultantly, after she had counted up the donations. "Mrs. Bragley is going to have _some_ spread!"

The committee of three went around by way of the town in order to purchase materials for the surprise spread for the woman they had run down. When the basket was filled they fairly reveled in the attractiveness of its contents. Boxes of crisp delicate crackers, tumblers of jelly, jars of imported strawberries and cherries, a bunch of California grapes that Rhoda said she was sure would weigh three pounds, and some unusually fine Florida oranges. Piling the basket on the sled that they had brought with them, they started gaily off, dragging it behind them.

After they had covered half the distance a voice hailed them, and Walter came dashing up behind them in his cutter. Reining in the spirited horse he was driving, he cried:

"Jump in, girls. It's a dandy day for a spin."

But they laughingly refused.

"Too many of us for that cutter," said Rhoda. "We'd make an awful load."

"And we don't want any men around anyway, to-day," laughed Bess.

Walter heard, but he saw only Nan's glowing face. What he thought about that face was plainly to be read in his eyes.

"Isn't there anything that I can do for you?" he asked. "Don't you want me to run the basket up to the cottage for you?"

"No, thanks," replied Nan. "We're getting along finely. It's awfully good of you, just the same."

Walter chirped to his horse, still with his eyes on Nan's smiling face, and, lifting his hat, drove on.

CHAPTER IX

THE JOY OF GIVING

After Walter left it did not take the girls with their sled long to reach Sarah Bragley's modest little cottage.

Mrs. Ellis opened the door at their knock.

"How is Mrs. Bragley to-day?" Nan asked, as they went in.

"As well as can be expected," replied the nurse. "She had a little fever last night, but not enough to be at all anxious about."

"Has the doctor been here to-day?" queried Rhoda.

"Yes," was the reply, "about an hour ago."

"What did he say?"

"He says she is doing very well," Mrs. Ellis answered. "The only thing that gives him any concern is her lack of appet.i.te. If he can coax that, he thinks she will soon be well."

"Perhaps these things will tempt her," remarked Nan, as she emptied the contents of the basket upon the table.

"How splendid!" exclaimed the nurse. "They are just the things she needs. I'll go and tell her that you are here, and you can take them in to her."

Left alone, the girls glanced around them. A warm fire blazed in the stove. Everything in the room was spotless.

"Doesn't it look nice?" observed Bess.

"Couldn't be any neater or more comfortable," judged Nan with satisfaction. "I'm so glad we could get Mrs. Ellis."

"She's a jewel, and no mistake," affirmed Rhoda.

At Mrs. Ellis' invitation, the three girls trooped into Mrs. Bragley's room. They were delighted to find her propped up in bed and looking very cheerful and comfortable.

"I'm glad to see you, young ladies," was her greeting to them. And she looked with pleasure into the bright faces as the girls cl.u.s.tered about the bed.

"You are feeling pretty good to-day, Mrs. Ellis tells us," said Nan brightly.

"Oh, very much better," was the reply. "I ought to when I have so many kind friends."

Just then the nurse came in, bringing the delicacies that the girls had purchased.

"See what these friends have brought you," she said, as she lifted the things one by one from the basket and placed them on a table by the side of the bed.

Mrs. Bragley's eyes grew wet with sudden tears.

"You are too good to me, young ladies! What kind hearts there are in the world!"

The oranges especially seemed to please her, and Mrs. Ellis prepared one for her.

"How good that orange tastes," she remarked. "I've always been very fond of them. At one time I thought I'd be owning a whole grove of them. But that was just a dream."

"What do you mean?" Rhoda asked, with interest.

"Well, dearie," answered the woman, evidently pleased with Rhoda's interest, "some years ago my husband thought he saw his way to make a little fortune for us. He heard of a company in Florida that was developing orange lands, and it looked so good to him that he bought a share in it. He thought he was going to make money enough out of it to make us safe for life. But nothing ever came of it."

"Where was this land?" asked Nan.

"Let me see," mused Mrs. Bragley, wrinkling her brow with the effort to remember. "It was somewhere in Florida, but I can't remember the name.

It was--it was--I can't just think. Not that it matters much, anyhow, but I hate to forget things that way. Sun--sun--Sunny Slopes. That's what the name was."

"What a pretty name!" cried Bess.