this fashion. Stop, will you?"

"What do you want?" demanded Tom, crossly, feeling it impossible to
elude such a pursuer, and backing up against a convenient angle.

"I want you to come up into the library and watch the game. Do, it'll
be the best time,"--he didn't say "to make it all up."

"Can't," said Tom, "he won't see me."

"Oh, yes, he will; I almost know he will," declared Jasper, eagerly
feeling this minute as if the most unheard-of things were possible.

"And beside, your sister--I mean the Pepper girl--Miss Pepper--" Tom
corrected himself clumsily. "She can't bear me--I won't come."

"Oh, yes, she can now," said Jasper, just as eagerly, "especially since
I've told her all you've told me."

"Well, I hate girls anyway," declared Tom, in his most savage fashion;
"always have hated 'em, and always shall. I won't come!"




III

PHRONSIE GOES VISITING