After a moment Jerry said slowly, "I--I am going to bed." Gyp wished that Graham would say something and Graham wished Gyp would say something, and both sat tongue-tied while Jerry walked out of the room. "Do you think we ought to tell mother?" Gyp asked, in a hushed voice. "N-no," Graham hated the thought of tale-bearing. "But Isobel's an awful snob. It's her going around with Cora Stanton and Amy Mathers." To think this gave some comfort to Graham and Gyp. "Well--I don't know what Jerry will _do_," sighed Gyp forlornly. The door of Jerry's room was shut and Gyp had not the courage to open it. She listened for a moment outside it--there was not a sound from within. She went into her own room and undressed slowly, with a vague uneasiness that something was going to happen. There had been no sound in Jerry's room because she had been standing rigid in the window, staring with burning, angry eyes out into the darkness. Her beautiful, happy world, that she had thought so full of kindness and good-fellowship, had turned suddenly upside down! "Charity girl----" She did not know just what it meant, but it made her think of homeless, nameless, unloved waifs--motherless, fatherless, dependent upon the world's generosity. Her hand went to her throat--_charity girl_--was not her beloved Sunnyside, with Sweetheart and Little-Dad, richer and more beautiful than anything on earth? And hadn't she always had----Like a flash, though, she saw herself in the queerly-fashioned brown dress that had seemed very nice back at Miller's Notch, but very funny when contrasted with the pretty, simple serge dresses that the other girls at Highacres wore. Perhaps they had all thought she _was_ a "charity girl," a waif brought here by Uncle Johnny. To be sure, her schoolmates had welcomed her into all their activities, but perhaps they had felt sorry for her and, anyway, it _had_ been after Uncle Johnny had given her the Christmas box---- She looked down at the dress she wore--it was the school dress that had been in the box. Perhaps she should not have taken it--taking it may have made her a charity girl. She should never have come here. It was costing someone money to send her to Highacres and to feed her; and often Mrs. Westley gave little things to her--and none of this could she repay! With furious fingers Jerry unfastened and tore off the Christmas dress. From its hook in her clothes closet she took down the despised brown garment. Her only thought, then, was to sort out her very own possessions, but, as she collected the few things, the plan to go away--anywhere--took shape in her mind. She would go to Barbara Lee until her mother could send for her! Then her door opened slowly. On the threshold stood Gyp in her red dressing-gown. It was not so dark but that Gyp could see that Jerry wore her old brown dress and that she held her hat in her hand. With one bound she was at her friend's side, holding her arm tightly.