"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman class is going to be one of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a feeling that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas time I mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well." "Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great excitement. "I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me, and all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll invite the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for the music." "Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the chorus. "By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would like to come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for me? I'm getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is there any girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she must have a sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here." "Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace. "She reads and recites beautifully." "You are not sure it would trespass on your time too much, Anne?" observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you." Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in time. "Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy. Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her own comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a kind thing in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by accepting the position. "Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the brightest girl in her class, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come and entertain me twice a week." CHAPTER IV THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA "Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the basement cloakroom a few afternoons later. "We do," came a chorus of voices. "I don't," answered one. "Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace. "She's too old," put in a sophomore. "This is a young people's party, I presume?" "Well, it's not a sophomore party, at any rate," retorted Nora. "Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other sophomores, imitating the cries of a baby. The freshmen were nettled by the superior attitude of the older class, but they knew better than to say anything more just then. "Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the sophomores had strolled away, "we'll be sophomores ourselves next year. Now, all who want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old Omnibus House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting place away." "Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber.