in case she should have a fit of obstinacy, and choose to attend the meetings, Eurie counted fully upon Flossy as an ally.  Much to her surprise, and no little to her chagrin, Flossy proved decidedly the more determined of the two.  No amount of coaxing—­and Eurie even descended to the employment of that weapon—­had the least effect.  To be sure, Flossy presented no more powerful argument than that it did not look well to come to the meeting and then not attend it.  But she carried her point and left the young searcher for fun with a clear field.

Now fun rarely comes for the searching; it is more likely to spring upon one unawares.  So, though Eurie walked up and down, and stared about her, and lost herself in the labyrinths of the intersecting paths, and tore her dress in a thicket, and caught her foot in a bog, to the great detriment of shoe and temper, she still found not what she was searching for.  Several times she came in sight of the stand; once or twice in sound of the speaker’s voice; but having so determinately carried her point in the morning, she did not choose to abandon her position and appear among the listeners, though sorely tempted to do so.  She wandered into several side tents in hope of finding something to distract her attention; but she only found that which provoked her.

In one of them a young lady and gentleman were bending eagerly over a book and talking earnestly.  They were interesting looking people, and she hovered near, hoping that she had at last found the “children” who would “play” with her—­a remembrance of one of her nursery stories coming to her just then, and a ludicrous sense of her resemblance to the truant boy who spent the long, bright day in the woods searching for one not too busy to play.

But these two were discussing nothing of more importance than the lesson for the coming Sabbath; and though she hovered in their vicinity for some time, she caught only stray words—­names of places in the far away Judean land, that seemed to her like a name in the Arabian Nights; or an eager dissertation on the different views of eminent commentators on this or that knotty point; and so engrossed were they in their work that they bestowed on her only the slightest passing glance, and then bent over their books.

She went away in disgust.  At the next tent half a dozen ladies were sitting.  She halted there.  Here at last were some people who, like herself, were bored with this everlasting meeting, and had escaped to have a bit of gossip.  Who knew but she might creep into the circle and find pleasant acquaintances?  So she drew nearer and listened a moment to catch the subject under discussion.  She heard the voice of prayer; and a nearer peep showed her that every head was bowed on the seat in front, and one of the ladies, in a low voice, was asking for enlightenment on the lesson for the coming Sabbath!