"I've told them the fishing is great around there, and they're going to make the trip from here in Jeff Saunders' car. Jeff's from Georgia, and most of the fellows have never been north. We're going to join them later on, so if you've got a bunch of tents together, you better save us three. "Now, Kit, listen here, when I struck Delphi, and landed with all that crowd of girls unexpectedly, you know how well I behaved, just for your sake. Don't you get superior and toploftical with the boys when they come, because every last one of them is the right sort, and they're expecting to find Gilead folks waiting for them with open arms from what I've told them." "Well, upon my word, I like that," exclaimed Kit, as she threw the letter down on the table. "Any one would think that I didn't know how to treat people. Just the same, we'll put them all over in the glen, where they can do just as they please, and not interfere with high art or our mysterious stranger." Sally opened her "General Emporium" the first of June. It stood exactly at the crossroads, beside Greenacre Hall. There was the waterfall, and the old bridge leading to the Scotland road. With Shad to superintend the work, the Peckham boys had erected a little slab shack, and Sally had planted wild cucumber and morning-glory vines thickly about the outside, the last week in April, so that by June they had clambered half-way up. There were rustic window boxes of birch, filled with nasturtiums and Wandering Jew. Inside the store there were two counters, one on either side as you entered, and these had been Mr. Peckham's contribution to the good cause. Several old hickory armchairs from Cousin Roxy's helped to give the interior an inviting appearance, and Sally put up little, thin scrim curtains at the windows. At first the stocking up of the store had been somewhat of a problem, but Cousin Roxy helped out with the business plan, and by this time nearly every one in Gilead was taking a keen, personal interest in the girls' venture. It was Ma Parmalee who first suggested Sally selling on the commission plan. "I've got thirty-five jars of the best kind of preserves and canned goods in Gilead, though I say it as shouldn't," she announced, one day, when she had stopped on her way by the crossroads to look over the new establishment. "Most of them are pints, and besides I've got--land, I don't know how many glasses of jell. I'd be willing to give you a right good share of whatever you could make on 'em, if you could sell 'em off for me down here."