At the gate of the farm, Ken paused suddenly,
and then said:
"Let's not say anything about all this to Phil; she'd just be worried
and upset. What do you say?"
"Don't let's," Kirk agreed. They shook hands solemnly, and then turned
to the lighted windows of Applegate Farm. But it would not have been so
easy to keep the unpleasant adventure secret, or conceal from Felicia
that something had been wrong, if she herself had not been so obviously
cherishing a surprise. She had thought that Kirk was waiting at the gate
for Ken, and so had been spared any anxiety on that score. She could
hardly wait for Ken to take off his sweater and wash his hands. Supper
was on the table, and it was to something which lay beside her elder
brother's plate that her dancing eyes kept turning.
Ken, weary with good cause, sat down with a sigh, and then leaned
forward as if an electric button had been touched somewhere about his
person.
"What--well, by Jiminy!" shouted Ken. "I never believed it, never!"
"It's real," Phil said excitedly; "it looks just like a real one."
"_What?_" Kirk asked wildly; "tell me what!"
Ken lifted the crisp new sheet of music and stared at it, and then read
aloud the words on the cover.
"_Fairy Music_," it said--and his name was there, and the Maestro's, and
"_net price, 60c_" "like a real one," indeed. And within were flights
of printed notes, and the words of the "Toad Pome" in cold black and
white.
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