of Gory George, in strange contrast to the soft curls hanging over her
shoulders now that they were no longer hidden by a piratical hat. She had
forgotten that she was in knickerbockers instead of skirts, and that the
old horse-pistol was still at her belt, until Barbara caught her to her
at parting with a laugh that turned into a sob, looking for a spot on her
face clean enough to kiss.

It was all over so soon--the machine whirling up to the door and away
again to stop at the bank an instant for the money which Georgina had
telephoned to have waiting, and then on to the railroad wharf where the
_Dorothy Bradford_ had already sounded her first warning whistle.
Georgina had no time to realize what was actually happening until it was
over. She climbed up into the mammoth willow tree in the corner of the
yard to watch for the steamboat. It would come into view in a few minutes
as it ploughed majestically through the water towards the lighthouse.

Then desolation fell upon her. She had never realized until that moment
how dear her mother was to her. Then the thought came to her, suppose it
was Barby who had been hurt in an accident, and she Georgina, was
hurrying to her as Barby was hurrying to grandfather Shirley, unknowing
what awaited her at the journey's end. For a moment she forgot her own
unhappiness at being left behind, in sympathetic understanding of her
mother's distress. She wasn't going to think about her part of it she
told herself, she was going to be so brave----

Then her glance fell on the "holiday tree."

The holiday tree was a little evergreen of Barby's christening if not of
her planting. For every gala day in the year it bore strange fruit, no
matter what the season. At Hallowe'en it was as gay with jack-o-lanterns