"He isn't really old, Janey. I thought him pretty vigorous. Who knows though, whom we may find deep in the forest? We shall have to ask Aunt Janice though for permission to invite guests."

"The more the merrier, sir, she said-- While gazing on the tulip bed,-- Come be our flower-guests, so sweet-- And make our party quite complete!"

"I didn't know you were a poetess, Nora! I'm sure Aunt Janice will let us have all the flower guests we want--from woods or garden."

"The sooner we stop talking, the sooner morning will come again, and so good-night and sweet dreams, Janey."

But Janey slipped out of bed and over to the window for one more look at the terrace, white and silvery in the bright moonlight.

"Have you forgotten the mystery of the tower room, Nora?"

Nora brushed back her brown curls, impatiently.

"Come back to bed and to sleep, Janey--you probably saw, as I said, a white pigeon imprisoned in the room; dismiss the thought, and forget all about it."

Janey was peering through the open window on the moonlit terrace below.

"I'm sure a white figure went gliding by and disappeared among the trees.

Come quick, Nora, and watch!"

Janey's voice was shaking with excitement, and it was only after several minutes of remonstrance from Nora that she was persuaded she was acting foolishly to be hunting up mysteries in perhaps just a pa.s.sing traveler, and so gave up and returned to bed.

"Maybe you'll find out I'm right about the waving handkerchief from the tower room, and also about that pa.s.sing figure. I think they're connected, so there, Nora--you just wait and see when the mystery is all cleared up!"

With that thought foremost in her mind, Janey at last, fell asleep.

CHAPTER V

EXPLORING THE FOREST

Bright and early after breakfast, the Merediths, bidding Aunt Janice good-bye, started out on their exploring expedition into the forest.

"You may make a whole day of it, if you like," Aunt Janice had said, "and have a picnic dinner--only be careful."

"We will--" they a.s.sented, "and as you don't mind if we stay all day, we can camp out, and play we're a gypsy band, and have lots of fun."

The old lady smiled. Beth had run back for a moment.

"Won't you be lonely?" she asked, but Aunt Janice thinking of their pleasure, had shaken her head.

"Not since you'll be coming back to have supper with me; don't stay any longer than sundown."

"All right," replied Don.

"I nearly forgot," Nora began, "may we invite any one in the forest, whom we chance to meet?"

Aunt Janice nodded in the affirmative, and at last they were off.

The blue mist across the hills was melting into thousands of sparkling dewdrops, as the sun began to climb higher in the sky.

Janey looked at the open scenery as they came to the edge of the shadowy forest.

"I wish we were going to the hills to camp--it's dark in there, where the pathway is so shadowed by the forest trees!"

Nora read her thoughts, and put a warning finger to her lips.

"Don't be silly, Janey; don't you see Don and Harry ahead? We'll play that we are all going on a quest, and they will be our knights--there's nothing to fear."

Janey's face brightened, and Beth and Alice, thinking only of the good time ahead, danced merrily along the way.

"Wouldn't it be fun, if we found a little cabin, in the heart of the forest?" Don turned toward Harry to help with the basket of lunch, that he had been carrying since they left.

Harry's eyes began to sparkle.

"Maybe we will; I, for one, am out on a real adventure."

"We're leaving the mystery of the tower room behind--" Janey paused, remembering that it was Aunt Janice's secret, after all, of which she spoke; yet she had not been able to shake off her nervous feelings, even though Nora had laughed at her fears!

"I read a story once called, 'The Adventure of the Happy Heart.'"

"What a pretty t.i.tle, Nora--tell us about it."

"The Happy Heart stood for anyone who tried to make someone, who was lonely, glad, every day or whenever the opportunity arose, on the road of life, as they adventured along its path."

"What a lovely idea!" Janey cried. "Where did you find the story?"

"In our Sunday school library; it all ended with the heart that started out to bring gladness into other lives along the way; because every happy heart in turn, made another happy, and the one who started it, was full to overflowing with joy, all of her days!"

"Let's try and find someone today on our adventure."

"There's no time like the present," Don stepped back, and pointed mysteriously through an opening in the trees ahead, that revealed at the end of a winding footpath, a real log--cabin!

"Oh," gasped Janey, turning to catch Beth and Alice's hands--"maybe it's a gypsy hut!"

"Don't be a goose-girl," laughed Don, "whoever heard of a gypsy settling down in one place; they are a wandering tribe."

"We'll be the scouts and go ahead and bring back a report."

Harry and Don started forward--

"Brave knights of old--" Nora said softly, as the two disappeared down the trail, toward the unknown, in the shape of a small cabin at the end!

"Well, this may be our chance to begin on our quest for happy hearts,"

Nora, her eyes following the boys, spoke again.