“Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, “do gather yourself up!  That bundle of hay seems enchanted.  As Nita says, we must be going.”

Tavia almost lolled over on the soft hay, then she gathered it up with conspicuous tenderness, pressed it fondly to her heart, and agreed to start on.  Each of the other girls was taking with her, back to the school, a similar souvenir; but Cologne and Dorothy threw theirs over their shoulder, in true rustic fashion, while Nita complained that she was not able to carry hers; though she did manage to bribe Tavia with a promised return of the chocolates to tie hers in with the extra sized bundle that Tavia was lugging along.

“Five miles of this will just about do me,” declared Cologne.  “I think it would have been infinitely better for us to have hitched on to the hay wagon, in spite of the old farmer.”

“And to think that we paid him in advance!  It’s a wonder we have never had a single lesson in financial economy at gloomy Glenwood.  ’How to cheat farmers; or, how to die game in a hayrick!’ I must suggest the text to Mrs. Pangborn, our honored principal,” declared Edna, as she, too, made her way along under the uncertain weight of a bundle of hay.

“But what are we dragging this stuff along for?” asked Dorothy.  “Sure as fate, we will have to drop them when we get within the city, and why not anticipate?  I vote for a drop right here!”

“Never!” declared Tavia.  “These are to make up the sacrificial altar.  If old Pangborn growls—­won’t allow the doors open—­we will do it with a match!” and she signified that the hay would make a spontaneous blaze in that lamentable instance.

Dorothy saw more than a joke in the remark.  Tavia was so ridiculously daring!  It would be very wise to get rid of the hay before entering the sacred precincts of Glenwood.

The sight was most absurd.  Five pretty girls, each dressed in the Glenwood blue and white, and each with a bundle of fragrant hay on her shoulder.

“There’s a lamb!” declared Cologne.  “I could do worse than give Mary’s pet a treat,” and she ran to the rail fence, jumped up on one of the queer crossed posts, and called all sorts of names to the surprised sheep, that scarcely stopped grazing to notice the girls outside of the barrier.

This spectacle induced the other students to climb up on the crooked fence, and presently the old rails were ornamented with the five girls in blue, with the hay bundles in hand!

It was getting dusk, and the sunset did not detract from the unusual scene.  Great shafts of gold and scarlet fell down on that old fence, and a prettier sight could scarcely have been worked up, much less imagined.

“Here, sheepy, sheepy!” called Tavia.

“Here, lamby, lamby, lamby!” pleaded Dorothy.

“Here, woolly, woolly, woolly!” invited Nita.

“Here, kinky, kinky, kinky!” induced Edna.

“Here, Flossy, Flossy, Flossy!” persuaded Cologne.