education.

“But you had better run back to the camp like a good girl,” pleaded Nat. “Come, we’ll walk part of the way with you.”

“Back to the camp! You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve started out in the world for myself, and could not go back now if I wanted to. That woman would beat me.”

“What woman?” Nat asked.

“The one my father married. They call her Melea. She has her own little girl and doesn’t care for Urania.”

“But where will you stay to-night?” inquired Dorothy, now anxious that the little Gypsy would change her mind, and run back to the camp at the foot of the hill before it would be too late—before she might be missed from her usual place.

“I was going to sleep under the bridge,” replied Urania calmly, “but when I heard you talking I came out. I love to hear pretty words.”

“Poor child,” thought Dorothy, “like a little human fawn. And she wants to start out in the world for herself!”

“I heard what you said about going to Dalton,” Urania said to Nat, as she tried to hide her embarrassment by fingering her tattered dress, “and I was wondering if you could let me ride in the back of your automobile. I want to go to the big city and it’s—it’s a far walk—isn’t it?”

“It would be a long walk to Dalton,” replied Nat in surprise, “but Dalton isn’t a big city. Besides, I could never help you to run away,” he finished.

“Some boys do,” Urania remarked with a pout. “I know people who run away. They come to Melea to have their fortunes told.”

Nat and Dorothy laughed at this. It seemed queer that persons who would run away would stop long enough to have their fortunes told by a Gypsy.

“And couldn’t I ride in the back of your automobile?” persisted the girl, not willing to let so good a chance slip past her too easily.

“I’m afraid not,” declared Nat. “I wouldn’t help you to run away in the first place, and, in the second, I never take any girls out riding, except my cousin and her friend.”

“Oh, you don’t eh?” sneered Urania. “What about the one with the red hair? Didn’t I see you out with her one day when we were camping in the mountains—near that high-toned 

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