decided on just because I can't go with you. Although," and her voice broke a little, "it's just wonderful of you, Vi, to feel that way. You will go, of course, and you can write me beautiful letters about the wonderful times you are having."

"I won't do it!" cried Violet, springing to her feet. "I'm not going to Three Towers without you, and that settles it. I don't care if I had a thousand parents. Who's that turning the corner?" she interrupted herself to ask. "There's something familiar about that walk."

"Why, it's Ferd Stowing," said Billie, getting to her feet for a better view. "My, but he looks happy about something. I wonder what's up."

The next moment Ferd Stowing, one of the best-liked boys in the town, came rushing up the steps like a whirlwind, and it did not take the girls long to find out "what was up."

"Hooray!" he cried, flinging his hat high in the air. "Wuxtry! All about
Ferd Stowing and Ted Jordon!"

"For goodness' sake, stop bellowing and behave," Billie commanded. "What have you and Teddy been doing now?"

"Plenty. But that's nothing to what we're going to do," crowed Ferd exultantly. "He and I have at last persuaded our reluctant parents to send us to the military school. You know—the one that is only a little over a mile from Three Towers where you girls are going."

Again Billie felt as if she had been treated to a shower of ice water. Teddy and Ferd were going to Boxton Military Academy, and Chet—her darling, loyal Chet—would not be able to go with them. Her own disappointment seemed nothing at all beside this new tragedy.

"I was just on my way over to your house," Billie was conscious that Ferd was addressing her. "We haven't had a chance to get in touch with Chet yet. But the old boy will of course go with us, won't he? It wouldn't be any fun without Chet."

Almost the very words Violet had said to her, thought Billie, as she tried to swallow a sob and only succeeded in turning it into a funny little cough.

"He will, won't he?" Ferd was insisting, while Violet watched them with troubled eyes.

"Why—why—I don't know, Ferd," Billie stammered, trying to make her voice sound natural. "I do know one thing, and that is that Chet is crazy to go and will if he gets half a chance."

"Then I guess it's all right," said Ferd, leaning back with a sigh of relief. "Gee, I was afraid you were going to say he couldn't go, and so spoil everything. Say, can't you see the good times we're going to have with you girls at Three Towers Hall and we fellows such a little way off that we can see each other every once in a while? I can't make up my mind that it's real yet—" And so on and on, rapturously, while Billie's heart sank lower and lower and Violet's own warm one ached for her friend.

Then just as Ferd started to go he spied Chet coming up the street and hailed him joyfully.

"Just the fellow I wanted to see," he declared fervently. "Come on up here, old man, and hear the glad news."

Billie groaned inwardly and seemed about to speak, but Violet stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Might as well get it over with," she whispered. "Chet is sure to hear of it later if he doesn't now."

So Billie waited, but her heart ached as she watched Chet march up smilingly to hear "the glad news."

"We're going to Boxton Military Academy." Ferd fairly shouted it at him. "How about it, old timer, are you going with us, or are you going to leave us in the lurch?"

The glad tidings staggered Chet for a minute, but he came on quietly and perched himself upon the railing, one foot swinging idly.

"You said you were going to the military academy?" he asked, his voice as quiet as his manner, but Billie noticed that the smile was gone. "By that I suppose you mean you and Teddy."

"And you," added Ferd, beaming upon him. "Billie said you were crazy to go."

Chet looked at Billie's unhappy face and tried to smile.

"Crazy to go!" he repeated. "I'll say I am. But—"

"But me no buts, Chet, my lad," broke in the impetuous Ferd. "I didn't ask you anything. I merely stated a fact."

"I—I'd give almost anything I own to make it a fact," said Chet, his eyes on the ground. "But I'm very much afraid you'll have to guess again, old man."

"Guess again? Well, I should say not!" cried Ferd, getting to his feet indignantly. "Why, the thing can't be done without you, Chet. Didn't Billie say—"

"Billie only said," interrupted Violet, coming to Billie's rescue, "that
Chet was crazy to go and would if he had half a chance."

Ferd sank back in his chair, too dismayed to speak.

"Well, of all—Say, old man, you've got to go," and he turned to Chet pleadingly. "What sort of a party do you think this is going to be anyway, with Billie at Three Towers Hall and you back here in North Bend? It's not fair."

"Not fair," flared Billie. "You don't suppose I'd go to Three Towers and leave Chet here, do you?"

"Then you're not going either?" cried Ferd, seeing all his castles in the air coming down about his ears with a crash.

Billie shook her head unhappily.

"No, I'm not going either," she said.

CHAPTER VI

DEBBIE DESERTS

Billy Bradley really tried to be cheerful in the days that followed, but try as she would she could not altogether keep out the vision of Three Towers Hall, the boarding school to which she had wanted to go ever since—well, almost since she had wanted anything.

Laura and Violet would go without her. They would have to go, even in spite of their loyal determination not to. Their parents would have something to say about that.

And Chet was in just as bad a fix, for Boxton Military Academy had been his dream even as Three Towers Hall had been Billie's. Oh, if only they could all go what a wonderful time they could have! Oh, well—

And Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, sensing something of all this, were very unhappy and cast about desperately for some way to give their boy and girl the advantages that the others would have. But money was very tight. Mr. Bradley had all his cash tied up in several real estate transactions.

So for a little while the Bradleys were not a happy family—although they tried bravely not to show it, even to each other.

Then one morning came a long, businesslike envelope, with a typewritten address, that caused a stir in the family circle.

Mrs. Bradley opened it with a puzzled frown between her brows, then uttered a startled exclamation.

"What is it, dear?" asked Mr. Bradley, while Billie and Chet crowded closer to her chair.

"Aunt Beatrice Powerson is dead," Mrs. Bradley announced with a look more of shocked surprise than of grief. "She died in Canada quite suddenly, and this is from her attorney asking us," she looked across at her husband, "to be present at the reading of the will."

"Well, well," said Mr. Bradley slowly, "poor Beatrice Powerson dead at last. I suppose she got as much out of life as any of us, though, in her eccentric way."

"It was strange," remarked Billie slowly, "that I should have been speaking of Aunt Beatrice only the other day. Violet wanted to know if she was wealthy."

"Was she, Dad?" asked Chet, with interest.

"I imagine nobody knew," his father answered. "As you