Ruth.

"It is a long waiting sometimes to get the next thing," said Dakie
Thayne. "Army men find that out. They grow gray getting it."

"That's where only one _can_ have it at a time," said Ruth. "These
things are different."

"'Next things' interfere occasionally," said Barbara. "Next things up,
and next things down."

"I don't know," said Rose, serenely unconscious and impersonal. "I
suppose people wouldn't naturally--it can't be meant they should--walk
right away from their own opportunities."

Ruth laughed,--not aloud, only a little single breath, over her work.

Dakie Thayne leaned back.

"What,--if you please,--Miss Ruth?"

"I was thinking of the opportunities _down_," Ruth answered.

It was several days after this that the young party drifted together
again, on the Westover lawn. A plan was discussed. Mrs. Van Alstyne
had walked over with Olivia and Adelaide Marchbanks, and it was she
who suggested it.

"Why don't you have regular practisings," said she, "and then a
meeting, for this and the archery you wanted to get up, and games for