Supper ended, and they gathered round the camp-fire, but nothing was quite as usual. It was all very well to crack jokes, but where was a certain merry laugh that was wont to ring out, at the smallest provocation, in such an infectious way that everybody else followed suit? And who was there, when Polly had the headache, to make a saucy speech and look down into the fire innocently, while her dimples did everything that was required in order to point the shaft? And pray what was the use of singing when there was no alto to Bell’s treble, or of giving conundrums, since it was always Polly who thought of nonsensical answers better than the real ones? And as for Jack, why, it was folly to shoot arrows of wit into the air when there was no target. He simply stretched himself out beside Elsie, who was particularly quiet and snoozed peacefully, without taking any part in the conversation, avowing his intention to ‘turn in’ early. ‘Turn in’ early, forsooth! What was the matter with the boy? ‘It’s no use,’ said Bell, plaintively; ‘we can’t be anything but happy, now that we have Elsie here; but it needs only one small headache to show that Polly fills a long-felt want in this camp. You think of her as a modest spoke in the wheel till she disappears, and then you find she was the hub.’ ‘Yes,’ said Margery, ‘I think every one round this fire is simply angelic, unless I except Jack; but the fact is that Polly is—well, she is—Polly, and I dare any one to contradict me.’ ‘The judgment of the court is confirmed,’ said Philip. ‘And the shark said, “If you Don’t believe it is true, Just look at my wisdom tooth!”’ sang Geoffrey. ‘And if any one ever tells me again that she has red hair and hasn’t good features, I should just like to show them a picture of her as she was to-day at the dinner-table!’ exclaimed Bell. ‘As if anybody needed features with those dimples,’ added Elsie, ‘or would mind red hair when it was such pretty hair!’ ‘I think a report of this conversation would go far towards curing Polly,’ said Dr. Winship, with a smile. ‘And you say we can’t go in there before we go to bed, _mamacita_?’ whispered Bell in her mother’s ear, as the boys said good-night—and went towards their tent. ‘My dear,’ she answered decidedly, with a fond kiss for each of the girls, ‘Polly herself asked me to keep everybody away.’ Polly herself wanted to be alone! Would wonders never cease? Meanwhile Dicky, who had disappeared for a moment, came back to the fire, his bosom heaving with grief and rage.