The event held one throbbing secret. It was a cold secret, although it arose from a warm impulse. By the greatest perseverance, Aunt Zillah had managed to get a wagonload of ice and a number of ice cream freezers up from Lee, and now, with the eager aid of the McEvoys, delicious ice cream, made after Miss Zillah’s own receipt, smooth as satin and tempting as nectar, filled the great freezers which bulked mysteriously beneath their gunny sack wrappings in the shade of the schoolhouse. Moreover, in the little cupboard where Azalea and Carin kept their stores, were six of the most noble, decorative and triumphant cakes which Miss Zillah ever had concocted. “I don’t know much about educating the young,” she told the girls and Mis’ Cassie, “but when it comes to feeding them, I understand the matter perfectly. Anyone who has reared a girl like Annie Laurie is bound to know something about that.” She sighed a little, for the day held one drawback. She did long to have her niece share in the pleasures of this closing time and to have her see what had been accomplished, and she had written begging Annie Laurie to come, but the girl had replied vaguely. Business at the dairy was very brisk. She was working early and late to get her hand in completely before her valuable assistant, Sam Disbrow, left for Rutherford Academy. “It will be a month yet before he goes,” Aunt Zillah had said almost petulantly. “I should have thought Annie Laurie might have spared us one day.” Mr. and Mrs. Carson were already at Lee, having run down to open up the house. “There seems to be no end of things to do,” Mr. Carson wrote his daughter. “Do you really think you need us up there, kitten? What difference will a few hours make? Have McEvoy pack up your possessions, and hasten to us.” “He doesn’t mean a word of it,” Carin declared. “He and mother are simply dying to get up here and see what we’ve done. Whenever papa sounds dull and prosy like that I know he’s planning something delightful. It isn’t normal for him to be stupid. He’s up to something, you’ll see.” But as the “last day,” hot, with gay clouds, came, and the pupils appeared an hour too early, and the Rowantree’s old surrey swung from the thick shade of the old wood road, all indicating that the hour was at hand, Carin began to have her doubts. For once in the history of the world, her parents were going to be stupid and sensible and economical! They were going to act like other people! She was horribly disappointed in them, and kept very busy so as not to be alone with Azalea and let her see how disappointed she was. There really was a great deal to do, for the parents of the pupils required much polite consideration. School did not call that morning until half after ten o’clock. The time preceding that was spent in talking about the moonlight school. There seemed to be a general desire for it, although some of the neighbors were exceedingly shy about expressing their desires.