was a gathering place for the young people of the entire neighborhood and the midshipmen in particular, who loved it dearly and were devoted to its mistress, loving her with the devotion of sons, and invariably calling her “the Little Mother,” and her sitting-room “Middies’ Haven.”  And a happier little rendezvous it would have been hard to find, for Mrs. Harold loved her big foster-sons dearly, strove in every way to make the place a home for them and to develop all that was best in their diverse characters.

It was to this home that Polly had come to pass the winter and now a new phase had developed, the outcome of what seemed to be chance, but it is to be questioned whether anything in this great world of ours is the outcome of chance.  If so wisely ordered in some respects, why not in all?

So it is not surprising that Mrs. Harold watched and listened with rare sympathy and a keen intuition as the girls walked a little ahead of her, talking together as freely and frankly as though they had known each other for years instead of hours only.

“Couldn’t you come out on the electric car every morning?” Peggy was asking.  “If you could do that for about two weeks I am sure you would be able to ride beautifully at the end of them.”

“Not in the morning, I’m afraid.  You see I am an Annapolis co-ed,” Polly answered laughing gaily at Peggy’s mystified expression.  “Yes I am, truly.  You see I came down here to spend the winter with Aunt Janet because she is lonely when Uncle Glenn is away.  But, of course, I can’t just sit around and do nothing, or frolic all the time.  Had I remained at home I should have been in my last year at high school, but Tanta doesn’t want me to go to the one down here.  Oh we’ve had the funniest discussions.  First she thought she’d engage a governess for me, and we had almost settled on that when the funniest little thing changed it all.  Isn’t it queer how just a little thing will sometimes turn your plans all around?”

“What changed yours?” asked Peggy, more deeply interested in this new acquaintance and the new world she was introducing her into than she had ever been in anything in her life.  “You’ll laugh at me, I dare say, if I tell you, but I don’t mind.  Up at my own home in Montgentian, N. J., I had a boy chum.  We have known each other since we were little tots and always played together.  He is two years older than I am, but I was only a year behind him when he graduated from the high last spring.  My goodness, how I worked to catch up, for I was ashamed to let him be so far ahead of me.  I couldn’t quite catch up, though, and he graduated a year ahead of me in spite of all I could do.  Then he took a competitive examination for Annapolis and passed finely, entering the Academy last June.  I was just tickled to death for we are just like brother and sister, we have been together so much.  Then Tanta sent for me and I came back with her on September 30.  One day we were over in the yard and the