mother. She kissed her friends tenderly, promising to see them the
next day.

"I'll be in school to-morrow unless mother needs me here," she
said with such a world of fond pride in her voice that the girls
who had so willingly befriended her felt that their loss was a
matter of small consequence when compared with the glorious fact
that Mabel had come into her own.





CHAPTER IV

GRACE TURNS IN THE FIRE ALARM


"I wonder what sort of excitement we shall have next?" remarked
Grace Harlowe to her three friends one afternoon as they gathered
in the senior locker-room, before leaving school.

Three weeks had elapsed since Mabel Allison and her mother had met
in Room 47 of the hospital, and many events had transpired in that
short space of time.

The girl chums had been entertained at "Hawk's Nest" by Mrs.
Gibson, and were in consequence the most important persons in the
Girls' High School. They had found Mrs. Gibson charming, and had
been invited to repeat their visit at an early date. Mabel's story