The summer so dreary in prospect to Maurice bade fair to be endurable after all.  Rosalind’s gray eyes, now merry, now serious, but always seeking the good in things, her contagious belief in the Forest, had stirred his manliness, making him conscious of his fretfulness, and then ashamed.  His mother, who had dreaded the long holiday, wondered at his content.  Katherine wondered a little too.  The Forest of Arden made a very nice game, and it was pleasant to have Maurice in a good humor, but she did not quite understand the connection.

Soon after the close of school Colonel Parton took his two older boys away on a western trip, leaving Jack with no resource but Maurice and the girls.  The two boys were great chums, and as Maurice’s knee made active sports impossible, Jack, too, gave them up for the most part.

As for Belle, her indifference to Rosalind had turned into ardent admiration.  She and Charlotte Ellis had a sharp dispute over the new-comer.  Charlotte confessed she was disappointed in her, and pronounced her odd, all of which Belle deeply resented, the result being a decided coolness between them.

“I am as glad as I can be Charlotte is going away this summer,” she was heard to remark.

“She can’t be as glad as I am that we aren’t going to be in the same town,” was Charlotte’s retort when the speech was repeated to her.

The cleverness of Maurice and Rosalind was duly impressed upon the other three when the constitution of The Arden Foresters was read, and after careful consideration it had been copied in the blank-book, and beneath it the members signed their names.  The excitement of Commencement week being over, a meeting was called to decide on a badge.

It had been decided that any member might call a meeting, and the method was suggested by Belle.  In each garden a spot was selected,—­an althea bush at the Partons’, a corner of the hedge at the Roberts’s, a cedar near the gate at the Whittredges’,—­in which the summons, a tiny roll of paper tied with grass, was to be deposited.

On the morning appointed for this meeting of The Arden Foresters, Celia Fair, knowing nothing about it, of course, had just settled herself in the arbor with a cushion at her back and her work-basket beside her, when Rosalind looked in.  She carried a book and a bunch of leaves, and she seemed surprised to find the summer-house occupied.  Her manner was hesitating as, after saying good morning, she asked if Miss Fair had seen Maurice or Belle.

“No; are you expecting them?  Won’t you come in and sit down while you wait?” Celia asked, noticing the hesitation.

“I wonder what they have told her about me?” was her thought.  It brought a flush to her face, and yet why did she care?

Rosalind accepted the invitation shyly.  “I must be early,” she said.  “I was to meet the others here at ten, but I went to drive first with grandmamma.”

“It is still ten minutes of ten,” Celia said, looking at her watch.  “Are you going to have a picnic?”