"You'd better call me Brown Walcott," said Gay. "That's what the fellows in New York call me—my twin sister is called Brownie."
The boys looked at one another sheepishly; they didn't know what to say.
"Well, we will call you Miss—Brown," faltered Lyman Carver at length.
"All right, we will. We can drop her easier than we can beat her in any other way!" said Will Babbitt.
This speech which everybody applauded—save Gay, who refrained through a delicate sense of modesty—immediately established a feeling of good fellowship.
"I promised to come right back," said Gay. "Walk along with me, won't you? It seems mighty good to see some fellows once more."
The boys stared. This was the most extraordinary girl! There was no resisting her pleasant manner, however, and they were soon walking along together, all talking merrily.
"Oh," cried Gay, suddenly, when they were outside the gate at Rose Cottage, "I'm going to have some kind of a time to-morrow afternoon at five o'clock; my aunt said so to-day. I wish you'd come."
This was another embarrassing moment! The boys were not generally included among aristocratic Miss Linn's young guests.
"I don't believe we should know anybody there except by sight," said Robert Clark at length.
"It will be a good chance to get acquainted with everybody, then," Gay replied.
"I don't think we can go, anyway, because we've got a game to-morrow afternoon," said Lyman.
"Put it off till day after to-morrow and I'll come," said Gay.
"Do you know anything about ball?" asked Fred Brown, wondering secretly if there was anything that this wonderful girl wasn't up to.
"If you can get on to my curves I'll give you the dandiest bat you ever held in your hands," Gay said, with great enthusiasm.
The boys were literally overcome by this challenge, but Lyman succeeded in saying,
"We'll take you up on that some day, Brown."
"It can't be too soon to suit me," laughed Gay. Then he threw one arm across Lyman's shoulders, the other across Will's and added, persuasively, "Promise you will come to-morrow."
"You see," said Will, "we don't belong to that set and when they meet us at church affairs they generally treat us as if we were heathen. They are not like you, Brown."
"I'd like to see anybody treat my guests that way!" said Gay, defiantly. "If you come I guess you'll see that my party isn't a church show."