The orchestra began to play “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” and Natalie began to sing. She had a sweet, clear young voice and she was fully able to redeem herself. The dancers followed her in this, as they had in dancing. It was a pretty chorus. But a strange thing happened. One by one the singers fell silent as they failed to remember the words. Only Beth, out of her careful training in such things in her old, so-different home in the Massachusetts hills, knew the anthem quite to the end. She sang it fearlessly in her sweet little voice, like a little song sparrow. And the Thanksgiving dance ended with Beth in her soft, silvery blue Priscilla gown singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” standing amid the silent circle of costumed young “Pilgrims and Strangers,” her happy, flushed little round face uplifted, her heart overflowing with true Thanksgiving gratitude and love. And Uncle Jim, watching the child, said under his breath: “God bless the dear little soul!” CHAPTER VIII TANAGERS AND BLUEBIRDS “You haven’t had your gym suit on once, Bethikins!” said Natalie reproachfully. “Oh, yes, I have; I tried it on the minute it came--the minute I got off my dress to go to bed the night it came,” Beth corrected herself with her usual painstaking fidelity to the exact letter of the truth. “Trying on doesn’t count; you haven’t worn it,” said Alys. “Trying on counted a lot to me,” Beth corrected her. “It’s like a bluebird.” “Funny you said that! Mama said we could be the Tanagers and Bluebirds, our gym club. All the girls must wear crimson or blue,” cried Natalie. “All the girls?” echoed Beth inquiringly. “Do you have outside girls in it? I’d be afraid to try if strange girls come.” “Our best friends come,” said Alys. “We have a perfectly magnificent instructor and our gymnasium is better than the other girls have--most of them haven’t one at all--so mama lets us have the girls here and form a club.” “You needn’t be afraid of that lot, Beth,” Dirk said derisively. “They’re not much at it. I bet you’ll show ’em something after you get the hang of it. You walk like a kid that could do gym stunts. Yes, they ask the girls in, but I can’t ask any of the fellows! What do you know about that? I practice with ’em, ’cause father wants me to get the lessons when Bob Leonard’s here, but not a boy but me in it! Tanagers and Bluebirds! Well, I guess! Sparrows, that’s what! I wear black.” “Who’s Bob Leonard? That can’t be a girl?” asked Beth, suppressing a desire to laugh. “It is Mr. Robert Leonard, our teacher,” said Alys, looking severely at her unabashed brother. “He was a great--athletic, or whatever you call it----” “Athlete,” Natalie corrected. “Athlete, then, at college. His father lost his money and Mr. Leonard has to teach and do things like that, while he is studying law. Dirk, mama dislikes you to be impertinent.”