"Want to help me this afternoon?" Janet inquired. "I want a big box of sand, and Mrs. Todd says we may drive her horse and cart to the shore. You get a box," she directed in her old manner. Harry was too delighted to be back into favor again to make any objections and dashed off at once. Mrs. Todd nodded her head slowly and laughed. "Boys are better fun than girls, eh?" she inquired. "Heaps," Janet replied, as she disappeared into the barn to assist in the harnessing of Durward, Mrs. Todd's horse. CHAPTER VI THE FAIR The Sunday-school room was packed with people, but to an observant eye it was noticeable that the greatest number were in the corner under a silk canopy that looked like an Arab's shelter. Hanging beside it on the wall was a sign, printed in orange and blue, that read, COME AND FISH IN THE INDIAN OCEAN A SURPRISE FOR EVERYBODY 10 CENTS A LINE Beyond the tent a group of high palms pointed the way to the beach, where a huge tub filled with water and reflecting myriads of little pebbles was surrounded by a stretch of sand. Sticks with strings and hooks attached stood ready, and to one side a mysterious mound covered by a silk scarf invited the curiosity of the passersby. Mrs. Todd stood a little to one side and kept looking at her watch. Mrs. Blake came over to her, and it was plain to be seen that they were both worried. "What do you suppose is keeping her?" Mrs. Blake exclaimed. "It is after four o'clock, and we must begin with the pond. Really, I think it is most inconsiderate of her to keep us waiting. Of course, if Mrs. Page has changed her mind--" "Mercy Page never changed her mind in her life," Mrs. Todd snapped. "It is something very different than that, and I have a strong suspicion what it is." She looked at a group of giggling girls who were whispering to each other in one corner, and had one of them turned at just that moment they would have wanted to run away, for Mrs. Todd looked very stern and forbidding. "Let some one else start it," she said. "I'll help them; she may come after all; who knows." But Janet at that particular moment was rowing with all her might, and she was rowing in the opposite direction from the church fair. Something glistened in both of her eyes and she stopped every now and then to brush it away. Nothing in the world could have induced her to turn around. She was hurt and very angry, and the one thought in her confused little mind was to forget there ever was such a thing as a church fair. This is what had happened. Harry and she had been busy in the early part of the afternoon putting the finishing touches to their work, when Janet found she wanted a pair of scissors. A number of girls were decorating a booth across the room and she went over to borrow theirs. She was hidden from them by a curtain of bunting. Just as she was about to speak, she heard one of them say,