CHAPTER V.


A COASTING PARTY.

The memory of that happy day sustained Hinpoha through many of the
trials that came to her in the days that followed. It seemed that
everything she did brought down the wrath of her aunt in some way or
another. For instance, she left a bottle of bees standing on the table
in her room, and Aunt Phoebe's dog Silky, who had been in the habit of
going into the room and chewing Hinpoha's painted paddle, knocked the
bottle over and let the bees out, getting badly stung in the process.
Then there was a scene with Aunt Phoebe because she had brought the bees
in. This and a dozen more incidents of a similar nature made Hinpoha
despair of ever gaining the good will of her aunt. Thus the autumn wore
away to winter and as yet the Desert of Waiting had borne nothing but
thorns.

Gladys's progress through school was like the advance of a conquering
hero. Although she had just entered this fall she was already one of the
most popular girls in school. She had that fair, delicate prettiness
which invariably appeals to boys, and an open, unaffected manner which
endeared her to the girls. Beside her very lovable personality she had a
background which was almost certain to insure popularity to a girl. She
was rich and lived in a great house on a fashionable avenue; she had a
little electric car all her own, and she wore the smartest clothes of
any girl in school. Her fame as a dancer soon spread and she was in
constant demand at school entertainments. Nyoda watched her a trifle
anxiously at first. She was just a little afraid that Gladys's head
would be turned with all the homage paid her, or that, blinded by her