Gingham aprons, every last one o' them!"

Some of the six wore sunbonnets, the rest plain garden hats; and all
wore stout serviceable shoes and stockings. Never had those six little
girls gone to a party before in such unparty-like costumes.

Patricia came dancing to meet them, bareheaded as usual. "Let's go down
to the barn right off," she proposed. "Goodness, how funny you do look!"
she giggled.

"So do you," Nell Hardy retorted; then the seven stood still a moment to
survey one another.

"Oh!" Mable Lane cried, "whatever put such an idea into your head, Pat?"

"I--I happened to think of it, that was all," Patricia answered vaguely.
"Come on--we'll play hide and seek, and no going out of the barn."

"Are--are there any horses there?" Susy asked.

Patricia shook her head. "Not today; Daddy's got Sam and Dick's gone to
pasture."

They played hide and seek all over the delightful big dusty old barn;
until Patricia, trying to reach goal by a short cut down from the loft,
came to an abrupt halt in her descent, caught on a projecting beam.

"Go back!" Ruth Martin advised; but Patricia, wriggling herself free,
dropped in a laughing heap on the barn floor.