XIII. PARADISE REGAINED.




WHAT
KATY
DID
AT
SCHOOL.


CHAPTER I. CONIC SECTION.

It was just after that happy visit of which I told at the end of "What
Katy Did," that Elsie and John made their famous excursion to Conic
Section; an excursion which neither of them ever forgot, and about
which the family teased them for a long time afterward.

The summer had been cool; but, as often happens after cool summers,
the autumn proved unusually hot. It seemed as if the months had been
playing a game, and had "changed places" all round; and as if September
were determined to show that he knew how to make himself just as
disagreeable as August, if only he chose to do so. All the last half
of Cousin Helen's stay, the weather was excessively sultry. She felt
it very much, though the children did all they could to make her
comfortable, with shaded rooms, and iced water, and fans. Every
evening the boys would wheel her sofa out on the porch, in hopes of
coolness; but it was of no use: the evenings were as warm as the days,