"I don't think I can be late now, Miss Jane, ever--with that lovely thing to keep time for me. And I wanted you to know--next year, when I come back, I'm just sure I shall cook and sew beautifully, and do my practising and everything, without once being told. And if I do sprain my ankle I'll be a perfect angel--truly I will. And I won't ever keep folks waiting, either, or--mercy! there's Nancy's first ring now, and I'm not one bit ready!" she broke off, as the musical notes of a Chinese gong sounded from the hall below. The next moment Miss Jane was alone with her thoughts--and with the lock of hair that she was still trying to smooth. "Dear child!" smiled the lady. Then she turned abruptly and hastened from the room, her hair still unsmoothed. "I'll just tell Nancy to be a little slow about ringing that second gong," she murmured. When Genevieve came down-stairs to supper that night, she brought with her two books: one a small paper-covered one, the other a larger one bound in dark red leather. "Here's the latest 'Pathfinder'--only I call it 'Path_loser_,'" she laughed, handing the smaller book to Miss Jane Chick; "and here is--well, just see what is here," she finished impressively, spreading open the leather-covered book before Mrs. Kennedy's eyes. "'Chronicles of the Hexagon Club,'" read Mrs. Kennedy. "Oh, a journal!" she smiled. "Yes, Aunt Julia. Isn't it lovely?" "Indeed it is! Who will keep it?" "All of us. We are going to take turns. We shall write a day apiece--we six Happy Hexagons of the Hexagon Club." "Do the girls know about it?" asked Miss Jane. "Not yet. I just thought of it yesterday when I saw the book in the store. Father bought it for the club--of course _my_ money was gone long ago--at such a time as _this_," she explained with laughing emphasis. "I'm going to show the book to the girls to-morrow. Won't they be tickled--I mean pleased," corrected Genevieve, throwing a hasty glance into Miss Jane's smiling eyes. "I think they will," agreed that lady, pleasantly. The girls were pleased, indeed, when Genevieve told of her plan and showed the book the next day. But even so entrancing a subject as a journal kept by each in turn could not hold their attention long; for time was very short now, and in every household there were a dozen-and-one last things to be done before the momentous fifth of July. Even the Fourth, with its fun and its firecrackers had no charms for the Happy Hexagons. Of so little consequence did they consider it, indeed, that at last one small boy quite lost his patience. "You won't fire my crackers, you won't take me to the picnic, you won't play ball, you won't do anything," he complained to his absorbed sister. "I shall be just glad when this old Texas thing is over!" CHAPTER IV ON THE WAY All the girls' friends came to see them off at the station that fifth of July.