"Don't ask me. Mine invariably sugars, as you are aware," and Madeline scowled darkly as she recalled repeated attempts and dismal failures in the manufacture of her favorite dainty.

"You can make gorgeous marshmallow buttercups," comforted Kitty. "You ought n't to expect to excel in everything."

"I don't-not quite," modestly confessed Madeline. "Eurie, do stop poking those coals to destruction, and tell us what 's on your mind! As sure as you get an idea, you vent it on the fire and freeze us."

Eurie set the poker primly in its rack. "I am going to give a party," she announced, in the tone of one who expected opposition but was prepared to combat it.

"All right," was Madeline's cheerful rejoinder, while Kitty added: "Of course we 'll have to, after all the invitations we 've accepted."

Eurie still wore her defensive expression. "No, not that sort," she declared. "Not an obligation party, but just a-a-a plain party."

"Neither ruffles nor bias folds on her festivity," teased Kitty, nodding at Madeline.

"Go on, Eureka! The certainty cannot be more harrowing than this suspense. Tell us the worst at once, I beg."

"There is n't any 'worst' to it, Kit. It's going to be lovely, and you 'll both help me." Eurie reached for the poker again, but Kitty got it first and hung it away in the closet, so her friend folded her hands and went on: "The idea has been simmering in my brain all afternoon, and since Hortense's party it has taken definite shape-"

"Like the genii that issued from the casket in the old fairy tale?"

"Exactly. Kindly refrain from further interruption. You remember how at Hortense's there was almost an embarrassment of riches and other bonbons. I could n't help thinking how some people would enjoy all those goodies-people who

"Yes, both, and tucks and embroidery besides," insisted Eurie.

Madeline yawned and leaned back comfortably. "Too much for me," she said. "I may feel able to tackle puzzles to-morrow, but I draw the line now."

don't usually get invited to such places. So my party is going to be different; a sweet, homelike affair."

"Nothing like frankness in describing the attractions of your own spreads," said Kitty.

"If it is n't too much trouble to explain, what is 'the spirit of the occasion?" "

"And, incidentally, what is the occasion?" "You girls are a great trial to me at times." Eurie sighed resignedly. "When one yearns for sympathy and intuitive understanding, it is most discouraging to have to stop and explain that b-a-t spells bat."

"Give our intuitions the merest crumb of a clue, and they'll go straight to work," promised Madeline.

"Sympathy has to have some foundation to rest upon. It is n't like an orchid, which subsists on oxygen-or is it carbonic-acid gas?" This from Kitty, who was studying botany.

"Now do hush and be as sensible as you can, girls," said Eurie, "and help me to think of every nice thing we can do. Mandolins, you know, and glees and charades and a sketching contest."

"I utterly refuse to go to a party where the refreshments are only dreamed of," began Kitty, but Eurie withered her with a glance.

"Chafing-dish stunts," the announcement proceeded, "and Russian tea, with little bits of pickles and crisp crackers and olives and caramels and cheese-straws."

"Served in the order named?" asked Madeline, meekly.

"Of course not, goose! You are to be the goddess of the chafing-dish, because you can do all the creamed things so well. Kitty, you can attend to the tea, because you can't cook a human thing-"

"Which, not being a cannibal, I do not contradict," interpolated that young lady.

"There is something still unrevealed." Madeline spoke with conviction. "She has n't told us the reason for this inspiration. I feel it!"

"I can do it in two words. Mrs. Bainbridge." "Wha-at?"

"You heard. Yes, I mean it. I am-or, rather, we are going to make her our guest of honor and entertain her royally, and, for once, give her something to eat she has n't had to prepare or even think about till it 's set before her!"

"Oh, but, Eurie! grown-ups would n't care for our harum-scarum spreads. We'll have to have table-cloths and dishes, and—”

"No, ma'am." Eurie was firm. "Just a regular school-girl frolic, eatables and all. She'll enjoy it, but even if she did n't it would do her good and give her something to think about for a day or two besides pork and beef and ice-cream." "Maybe she might enjoy a change."

Kitty's voice was thoughtful, but Eurie was positive.

"Enjoy it? She 's suffering for it. She's been as good as she could be to us girls all winter, and we have n't done a thing to show we appreciate it. I think it's time we did."

"If you are determined to go outside our ranks, had n't we better borrow the dining-room?"

"No-no-no! Don't you see that the diningroom is the main thing we want to keep her out of that and the kitchen?"

"But she could n't spare the time on Saturday. She's always too busy."

"I thought about that, too. Girls-" Eurie paused long enough to make her next sentence impressive-"we, the Triplets, are going to help her with her work all Saturday forenoon. We will rub silver, polish glass, pare potatoes, and make French dressing, till our landlady won't have the ghost of an excuse to decline our invitation."

Kitty twitched her room-mate's sleeve, but Madeline sat still. "I guess she 's right," she remarked presently. "I don't suppose it would be much fun to cook and wash dishes all the time without any recreation, and if we do it we might as well do it right."

"My sentiments, exactly." Eurie beamed.

"Of course I'll give in when all my Triplets are against me," Kitty said, with mock gravity, but her eyes were bright as she added inconsistently: "She is a dear and no mistake. She shall have a lark to remember, or it sha'n't be our fault.”

CHAPTER II

MRS. BAINBRIDGE was in the kitchen next day when they waylaid her. Not that the fact was at all remarkable, for she spent much of her time in that humble but very important apartment. She had a little worried line between her eyes, for Sarah Jane, her helpless "help," had just demolished a treasured dish, and the roast for dinner had not put in an appearance. She sighed heavily just as three bright faces peeped through the slide and three blithe voices chimed a greeting. She smiled, of course-who would n't with a picture like that in sight?

"Just one minute, Mrs. Bainbridge." Eurie was spokesman. "We are n't going to bother; we 've come to invite you to a party up in our room, Saturday from two-thirty to five-thirty. Oh, yes, you can. Why, bless you, lady mine! you 're the guest of honor-you can't send regrets. Yes, we do want you, so much we mean to have you. You won't be too busy-we 're coming to help you get ready. No, indeed! no full dress; gingham aprons if you like. Just a frolic, Mrs. Bainbridge. You'll enjoy it. Good-by."

The three bright faces disappeared as suddenly as they had come, but somehow the kitchen seemed less gloomy. "The dears!" exclaimed Mrs. Bainbridge. "The idea of their asking me to their party!" Sarah Jane stared stupidly while her mistress wiped a suspicious dimness from eyes that nevertheless shone softly. "I'd love to go. They do have such good times together. I

"Several things, only I had to stop to take breath. Anyhow, that 's enough, and we 're going to give her the time of her life." The speaker paused, but there was no response, so she bowed politely and remarked: "Thanks, ever so much. I knew I could depend on you both."

"Come on to bed, Mad. We could argue straight through till breakfast-time, and when Eurie 's in her present mood she 'd be unmoved."

most makes me forget that I 'm not a girl myself again. After all, it has n't been so long since I was their age. Bless their hearts! Sarah Jane, you may lay those pieces on the shelf. I think the dish can be mended."

"But you told me to throw them away, ma'am." "So I did, but I 've changed my mind. And there comes the butcher's boy, so the roast is in time after all. It does me a world of good to think they want me, though of course I can't go.”

But of course she did. She had not counted on her would-be hostesses when she said that. Early Saturday morning they appeared, "armed for the fray," as Kitty expressed it. Mrs. Bainbridge began a polite refusal of their assistance, but she never finished it, for Eurie seized broom and duster as one to the manner born, Kitty took forcible possession of dish-mop and tea-towel, while Madeline fell to seeding raisins with a practised hand. “You see," she assured her bewildered landlady, "we are not solely ornamental. We've been brought up to know a few useful things, just for the sake of variety."

Mrs. Bainbridge came to believe it before the morning was gone, for the work disappeared as by magic, and the drudgery of the Saturday baking was turned to a pleasure. Who would n't enjoy making cake with an admiring trio to exclaim over its deliciousness? Or pies, when three assistants begged for directions for making the flaky crust? Of course it kept them busy the morning long, but as they left to dress for luncheon, Eurie waited to say: "Two-thirty, sharp, Mrs. Bainbridge. We 've got dinner planned so Sarah Jane can't spoil it if she tries, though, to relieve your own mind, I suggest that you put her to bed for the afternoon."

"I am coming if my dinner goes to rack and ruin!" was the reckless rejoinder. "After all that has been done to prove that you want me to go, I could n't do less than prove that I want to go. I'll be there, you dears!"

"She's coming; now it 's up to us to make good." Eurie was earnest if slangy.

"We'll do it, never fear, even though it is a trifle complicated to run a boarding-house and cater for a banquet at one and the same time. Eurie, have you any alcohol for the chafing-dish?" "I have. Also some oysters and patty-shells. Everything's in the big bandbox. My hat? Oh, it's in there somewhere. Don't spill that milk over my Sunday gown if you can help it. Kitty, count the spoons, will you? Not as a precautionary measure, but just to see if I must ask my guests to bring their own utensils. Somebody hook me up, please, while I open the olives."

They had kept their word in the matter of invitations, so the girls who helped to entertain the "guest of honor" that Saturday afternoon were as pleasant as one could wish to meet, and obeyed to a man the strict injunction each had received. "You are to act as if there was n't a soul there but ourselves. Be as silly and giggly as usual, and do all your entertainment stunts as if you were alone with your looking-glass."

Mrs. Bainbridge, in a pretty black dress, with a girlish pink bow in her hair, entered into the VOL. XXXIX. — 104.

fun with all her might, and after a while took her turn at the program and told a Southern dialect tale inimitably. That brought down the house, as it were, and put her on an equality with her entertainers. "Age limitations" were lost sight of, dignity forgotten, and stiffness thrown to the winds. "But we 'll have to get at our spread, girls, or we 'll never finish by five-thirty," insisted Eurie, at last, passing pickles as she spoke and following them with caramels. Nobody cared, and, stranger still, nobody suffered from indigestion afterward, though every rule of dietetics was shattered. As for Mrs. Bainbridge, they heaped her plate with every dainty the bandbox offered, and she enjoyed them all.

"I have n't eaten as much in years," she declared at last. "Those patties were nectar and ambrosia."

"Not half as good as the ones you make," said Kitty, emphatically. "And, to be quite frank, the tea is bitter and the cheese-straws tough. But everything goes at our spreads, Mrs. Bainbridge."

That lady sighed contentedly. "It's all perfectly delicious. fectly delicious. Yes, Miss Madeline, just one more spoonful. I shall not eat anything there is down-stairs after this. No common boiled ham and mince-pies for me to-night!"

They would n't let her go till she had promised to spend an evening with each girl in turn, and had almost consented to a "reading" in her own parlor, where some of the favorite teachers from the school could be invited.

She broke away at last and hurried to the kitchen and the dinner for her boarders, but she ran down the stairs as if a half-dozen years had fallen away from her since she ascended them, and hummed blithely over her range the refrain of a college glee.

Up-stairs the Triplets were talking it over. "She's a regular Cinderella in disguise!" declared Eurie. "I always knew she was nice, but I never dreamed how nice!"

"We started out to be self-sacrificing, but we surely did get left." Kitty's diction was emphatic, if not above reproach. "She 's as full of fun as any girl in the lot when she gets a chance to show it.' "We'll count her in after this whenever she 'll let us," said Madeline. And they did.

It was a small thing, yes, but it led to many pleasant happenings, as small things sometimes do. The little landlady never again had to listen to the girlish song and laughter in her upper rooms, with a wistful longing for her own girlhood, only a little way behind. Instead, she was freely "counted in," both giving and receiving help. But of all her girl friends none were quite so near and dear as the Triplets.

CHAPTER XVII

HIS EXCELLENCY, GENERAL WASHINGTON

BROTHER JOHN was so happy and so boyish, and so earnest withal, that I caught his enthusiasm over this good news from France.

"Oh, I am pleased!" I cried; "I hoped the paper would secure me a welcome, but if 't will help to beat the British and free us from slavery, I am more than glad!"

"Listen to the little rebel!" he mocked gaily. "When and where have you come by such treasonous notions?"

And this, of course, led me to tell of Captain Timmons and of our talks together.

"I fear 't will be a long time ere we see the captain again," said Brother John, rather sadly. "He and the crew have certainly been taken, and will be shipped to England. No doubt he expected to be exchanged sooner or later, and then give us the location of the cargo. But now 't is like to stay hid till the end of the war, and we need powder this minute."

"But I know where 't was hid," I exclaimed. "Nay, do you, Bee? Then you are a treasure indeed! Tell me!" he cried.

But though the words were on the tip of my tongue, they would not come, and for a while I racked my brains.

"Aye, now I have it!" I said at last. "'T is ten miles north-northeast of the Candlestick." "But where is the Candlestick?" asked Brother John, in perplexity.

"Nay, that I cannot tell you," I replied; "but Captain Timmons said that all the men on his part of the coast knew the Candlestick and-"

"Then we 'll find it, be well assured of that!" he vowed. And it will not be amiss to say here that it was found, and right useful it proved.

Meanwhile Brother John had been rowing hard, and we were now rapidly approaching the town of New York, which was situated on a point of land running between two great rivers.

I looked eagerly ahead as we approached it, and was surprised to see, instead of Indian wigwams, pleasant houses with gardens coming down to the water's edge.

But no sooner had Brother John brought his boat to land than he hurried me into the town. Once or twice we were stopped by sentries, and there were barricades in some of the streets. Soldiers were everywhere in a uniform that,

though strange to me then, was to become very familiar; and all about there were signs of great activity and preparation; for, although I did not know it, the British were expected to attack at any moment.

"And where are we going now?" I asked Brother John as we hurried along.

"To General Washington," he told me.

"But must I go?" I demurred; for from what I had heard of General Washington, not only from Captain Timmons, who seemed to worship him, but from the British officers as well, I thought he must be so great and splendid that I was awed at being obliged to go before him.

"Aye, indeed you are to go!" he cried. "Think you I would miss the chance of presenting so brave a sister? And, moreover, His Excellency would be sure to send for you; so I am saving a trip."

"But my dress and-and-" but he cut me short. "General Washington won't heed your clothes," he answered, "though he is somewhat particular on such matters, too. Come along and fear not. He is the best man in the whole world.”

Shortly we reached a house before which stood sentries. There was some little delay before we were admitted, and Brother John grew impatient; but at last we were shown into a large room off the hall.

As we entered, the hum of voices stopped and the heads of some half-dozen officers turned in our direction.

""T is Jack Travers," I heard some one say, and then two or three of them stepped back, leaving an opening in the group; and I saw General Washington for the first time.

There was no need to name him. I knew it must be he from the look in his face as he turned it toward us. He was so tall and stately that I thought no king could be half so commanding. He stepped forward to meet us with a rather anxious face, I thought.

"You have it?" he asked, and his voice thrilled

me.

"Yes, Your Excellency," answered Brother John, saluting. "And here is the maid who brought it. May I present to Your Excellency my sometime cousin, now my sister by adoption, Mistress Beatrice Travers."

My heart fluttered as General Washington turned his eyes to me, and why I know not, except that I was scarce aware of what I was