"Not a word! I telephoned to the paper, and they said no replies had come in there. If that young man is depending on this money to make his fortune, I'm afraid he'll be broken instead of made, to use his own expression," and Betty sighed. The warning bell had broken in on their talk, as it had on that of the rival girls. And then began the school day. It was warm--very warm for that time of year, being early May, and as the members of the new Camping and Tramping Club looked from the open windows, out to where Spring was already forcing into bloom the flowers, and urging the trees to greater activity, as regards the tender green leaves, there came an almost overpowering desire to toss aside books and papers, and get out where the smell of the brown earth mingled with the perfume of growing vegetation. The teachers, doubtless, found it difficult also, for the call of nature manifested itself to them, and the girls and boys, rather selfishly, did not make it as easy as they might. The noon recess again brought the four friends together, and Betty showed a tentative program she had surreptitiously scribbled during a study period. It contained the names of towns, with the available relatives of the girls set down opposite each one, and a rough calculation of the time required to walk from one place to the other. "It seems as if we ought to start at once," exclaimed Mollie. "Aren't you just dying to go, Amy?" "I am--yes." There was hesitation in the tones. "Why, what is the matter?" asked Grace, quickly. "Are you ill, Amy?" for the girl looked pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. "No, I'm all right. But papa and mamma don't seem to want me to go--at least they say they rather I would not just at present." "The idea!" "After we have it almost all arranged!" "Why not?" These comments and the question were fairly shot at Amy. "I--I don't know," she faltered. "At first they did not seem to mind--but last night--oh, I dare say it will, be all right, girls. Don't mind me," and Amy tried to smile, though it could easily be seen that it cost her an effort. She did not want to tell that she had overheard her parents discussing something the night before that troubled her--a topic that had been hushed when she unexpectedly came into the room. And that it had to do with the proposed little trip Amy was sure. Yet Mr. and Mrs. Stonington had at first shown much interest in it, and had written to various relatives asking them to entertain the girls. "Stuck up things!" murmured Alice Jallow, toward the close of the noon recess, when the four chums had kept to one corner of the school court, eating their lunches, and never joining in the activities, or talk, of the other pupils. "I wonder what they can be planning?" murmured Alice. "If they're getting up a new society, we'll do the same, and we won't ask them to join."