XX. CLEO'S EXPERIMENT

XXI. FORGING AHEAD

XXII. THE WHIRLING MAY-POLE

XXIII. RAINBOW'S END




CHAPTER I

GIRLS AND GIRLS


It was much like a scene in a movie play. The shabby dark room
lighted by a single oil lamp if any light could make its way
through the badly smoked glass that served as a chimney, the
broken chair, and the table piled high with what appeared to be
rags, but which might have been intended for wearing apparel, the
torn window curtain hanging so disconsolately from the broken cord
it had one time proudly swung from, and the indescribable bed!

Like some sentinel watching the calamitous surroundings, a girl
stood in the midst of this squalor, her bright golden hair and her
pretty fair face, with its azure blue eyes, marking a pathetic
contrast to all the sordid, dark detail of the ill-kept room. She
took from the side pocket of her plaid skirt a bit of crumpled
paper, and placing it directly under the lamp, followed its