Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/143

Rh 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"