Hammond is a friend to be proud of. She has such good sense."

"And pluck to beat the band!" cried Walter. "I'd like to see that
country she comes from."

"And me, too," agreed Bess Harley, who overheard this statement.

"'Rose Ranch,'" murmured Grace. "Such a pretty name! After all, she
has said just enough about it to be very tantalizing," and the
smaller girl smiled.

"Maybe she does that purposely," Bess remarked. "Perhaps she thinks
we have so many things she hasn't obtained yet, that she wants to
make us jealous a bit."

"I really don't think that Rhoda worries about what she doesn't
have," Nan put in. "Perhaps she doesn't even see that she lacks
anything that we have."

"Well, she never will go in for athletics," Bess declared.

"Athletics!" burst out Walter. "Why, there isn't another girl at
Lakeview Hall who could do what she did just now."

They were all agreed on that point. Even Dr. Prescott and the staff
of instructors commented upon Rhoda's stopping the runaway.
Professor Krenner, the mathematics teacher, and with whom Nan and
Amelia Boggs took architectural drawing, selected Rhoda to be one
of a small party at his cabin up the lake one spring afternoon. And
the professor's parties were famous and very much enjoyed by those