Reinventing Drug Development Jeffrey S Handen

download

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-drug-development-
jeffrey-s-handen-4921230

Explore and download more ebooks at ebookbell.com

Here are some recommended products that we believe you will be
interested in. You can click the link to download.

Reinventing Justice The American Drug Court Movement James L Nolan

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-justice-the-american-drug-
court-movement-james-l-nolan-51956836

Reinventing Labour Law Enforcement A Sociolegal Analysis Louise

Munkholm

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-labour-law-enforcement-a-
sociolegal-analysis-louise-munkholm-50228360

Reinventing New Zealand Essays On The Arts And The Media 1st Edition
Roger Horrocks

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-new-zealand-essays-on-the-
arts-and-the-media-1st-edition-roger-horrocks-51654772

Reinventing Ovids Metamorphoses Karl Ae Enenkel Jan L De Jong

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-ovids-metamorphoses-karl-ae-
enenkel-jan-l-de-jong-58732500
Reinventing The Media Graeme Turner

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-the-media-graeme-
turner-33056382

Reinventing Traditions On The Transmission Of Artistic Patterns In

Late Medieval Manuscript Illumination New Edition Joris Corin Heyder

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-traditions-on-the-
transmission-of-artistic-patterns-in-late-medieval-manuscript-
illumination-new-edition-joris-corin-heyder-5724166

Reinventing The Book Challenges From The Past For The Publishing
Industry 1st Edition Christina Banou Auth

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-the-book-challenges-from-
the-past-for-the-publishing-industry-1st-edition-christina-banou-
auth-6614108

Reinventing Western Civilisation Transnational Reconstructions Of

Liberalism In Europe In The Twentieth Century Unabridged Edition Hagen
Schulzforberg

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-western-civilisation-
transnational-reconstructions-of-liberalism-in-europe-in-the-
twentieth-century-unabridged-edition-hagen-schulzforberg-6729044

Reinventing Africas Development Linking Africa To The Korean

Development Model 1st Ed Jongdae Park

https://ebookbell.com/product/reinventing-africas-development-linking-
africa-to-the-korean-development-model-1st-ed-jongdae-park-9962214
 Re-inventing
Drug Development
Edited by
Jeffrey S. Handen, PhD
Medidata Solutions, Inc.
New York, New York, USA

Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Version Date: 20140902

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4665-7999-6 (eBook - PDF)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information stor-
age or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copy-
right.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that pro-
vides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photo-
copy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Dedicated to my family, Connie, Alex, Max, and Julia Handen
Note
One hundred percent of all authors’ royalties from this book are being
donated to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, https://www.
rarediseases.org/, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. and EURODIS—The Voice of
Rare Disease Patients in Europe, http://www.eurordis.org/, Paris, France.
Contents
Editor................................................................................................................. vii
Contributors........................................................................................................ix

Chapter 1 Redefining innovation................................................................ 1

Jeffrey S. Handen

Chapter 2 Collaborations of the future.................................................... 13

Melinda S. Shockley

Chapter 3 Portfolio management: Selecting the right “set of

projects” to meet product development goals...................... 33
Arun Kejariwal

Chapter 4 Funding and resourcing clinical development.................... 49

Michael A. Martorelli

Chapter 5 Emerging role of patients in clinical research..................... 65

Michael S. Katz

Chapter 6 Innovative organizations: Viewpoints of

organizational scholars and practitioners............................ 87
Lindsey Kotrba, Ia Ko, and Daniel R. Denison

Chapter 7 Moving toward personalized medicine: How to

transform product development........................................... 105
Michele Pontinen, Jian Wang, and Christopher Bouton

Index................................................................................................................. 133

v
Editor
Jeffrey S. Handen, PhD, is vice president of professional services with
Medidata Solutions, Inc. Dr. Handen has published in multiple peer-­
reviewed and business journals, presented at numerous industry con-
ferences and scientific meetings as an invited speaker, and served as
past editor-­in-­
chief of the Industrialization of Drug Discovery compen-
dium. Before joining Medidata Solutions he was with Merck Research
Laboratories for 6 years as a director of portfolio and project manage-
ment helping to plan, manage, and execute Merck’s clinical development
portfolio. Prior to Merck, Dr. Handen held management consulting posi-
tions with Computer Science Corporation and IBM Business Consulting
Services (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting). With over
20 years’ experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and
development, process reengineering, and systems and process imple-
mentation, Dr. Handen has also held research and management posi-
tions with the University of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of
Health. As vice president of professional services for Medidata Solutions,
Dr. Handen is responsible for overseeing clinical development business
process integration, solution architecting for optimizing clinical trials
design execution and development, implementation of data-­driven met-
rics, and developing and implementing operational metrics to improve
clinical research processes. He holds a PhD in neurosciences from George
Washington University as well as a BS from Duke University.

vii
Contributors
Christopher Bouton, PhD, earned his BA in neuroscience (magna cum
laude) from Amherst College in 1996 and his PhD in molecular neurobi-
ology from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. Between 2001 and 2004
Dr. Bouton worked as a computational biologist at LION Bioscience
Research Inc. and Aveo Pharmaceuticals, leading the microarray data
analysis functions at both companies. In 2004 he accepted the position of
head of integrative data mining for Pfizer and led a group of PhD-­level sci-
entists conducting research in the areas of computational biology, systems
biology, knowledge engineering, software development, machine learn-
ing and large-­scale omics data analysis. While at Pfizer, Dr. Bouton con-
ceived of and implemented an organization-­wide wiki called Pfizerpedia
for which he won the prestigious 2007 William E. Upjohn Award in
Innovation. In 2008 Dr. Bouton assumed the position of CEO at Entagen
(http: //www.entagen.com), a biotechnology company that provides com-
putational research, analysis, and custom software development services
for biomedical organizations. In 2013, Entagen was acquired by Thomson
Reuters and Dr. Bouton became the general manager of Entagen for
Thomson Reuters. Dr. Bouton is an author of more than a dozen scientific
papers and book chapters, and his work has been covered in a number of
industry news articles.

Daniel R. Denison, PhD, is professor of management and organization at

IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the chairman and founding partner of
Denison Consulting, LLC. Prior to joining IMD in 1999, Dr. Denison was an
associate professor of organizational behavior and human resource man-
agement at the University of Michigan Business School, teaching in MBA,
PhD, and executive education programs. Dr. Denison has taught and lived
in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. He earned his bach-
elor’s degree from Albion College in psychology, sociology, and anthro-
pology, and his PhD in organizational psychology from the University
of Michigan. Dr. Denison’s research, teaching, and consulting focus on
organizational culture and leader­ship, and the impact that they have on the
performance and effectiveness of organizations. His research has shown

ix
x Contributors

a strong relationship between organizational culture and business per-

formance metrics such as profitability, growth, customer satisfaction, and
innovation. He has consulted with many leading corporations regarding
organizational change, leader­ship development, and the cultural issues
associated with mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds, and globaliza-
tion. His latest book, with IMD colleague R. Hooijberg, Leading Culture
Change in Global Organizations: Aligning Culture and Strategy, was published
in 2012. He has written four other books, including Corporate Culture and
Organizational Effectiveness, published by John Wiley in 1990. He is also the
author of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey and the Denison
Leadership Development Surveys, which have been used by over 5,000
organizations. His articles have appeared in leading journals such as
the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review,
Organization Science, the Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Journal of
Organizational Behavior.

Michael S. Katz earned his BS in electrical engineering and computer

science and his MBA in finance and management science from Columbia
University. Katz’s professional career spanned over thirty years in man-
agement consulting, recently retiring as a senior partner at Booz, Allen
& Hamilton, Inc. He is a 23-year survivor of multiple myeloma and a
6-year survivor of rectal cancer. He has worked as a patient advocate
across a broad spectrum of cancers, in research, education, and support.
Highlights include chairing the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director’s
Consumer Liaison Group, the Cancer Research Advocates Committee at
the ECOG-­ACRIN Cancer Research Group, the Association of Cancer
Online Resources, and serving on the executive board of the International
Myeloma Foundation. Katz is also a past member of the NCI’s Multiple
Myeloma Steering Committee and Patient Advocate Steering Committee,
and a peer reviewer for numerous federal government research grant
programs. In these roles, Katz has been privileged to be able to actively
contribute to improved outcomes for cancer patients, through in-­person,
on the phone, and online education and support programs, as well as add-
ing the patient voice to the dialog on cancer research. He was actively
involved in the development and conduct of the registration trials for two
of the immunomodulatory drugs currently being used to treat multiple
myeloma. He is acknowledged as the catalyst for the myeloma trial that
replaced high-­dose dexamethasone with a safer, equally effective lower
dose alternative. Katz is the 2014 recipient of the American Society of
Clinical Oncology’s Partners In Progress Award.

Arun Kejariwal earned his BE in chemical engineering from Manipal

Institute of Technology, India, in 1993; ME in chemical engineering from
Widener University, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1997; and MBA from Saint
Contributors xi

Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2006. Kejariwal earned

his Six Sigma Black Belt in 2009 and Green Belt in 2008. Between 1993 and
1995, Kejariwal worked as a marketing engineer at Incorporated Engineers
Limited, India, and designed and installed, in partnership with a British
consulting firm, a high-­velocity paper drying system, a first in India. From
1997 to 2001, Kejariwal provided process design and validation consultation
to biotech, pharmaceutical, food, semiconductor, and cosmetics industries
in the United States. In 2001, he accepted the position of research chemical
engineer for Merck, and participated in design, installation, and validation
of the first biologics multiproduct facility. He led a cross-­functional team to
manufacture clinical materials for Cancer Mab, and HIV and HPV vaccines.
He was identified as the point person for biologics strategic and business
planning, and reported to the head of bioprocess research and develop-
ment. His work on biologics capacity and economic analysis was key to
formation of the Merck BioVentures. In 2007, he transitioned to the strategy
and portfolio management group at Merck, where he provided scenario
and feasibility analysis to support project- and portfolio-­level decisions.
He participated in design and implementation of multiple end-­to-­end pro-
cesses necessary for portfolio and business management. He led a team to
develop a model for pipeline forecasting and modeling, and participated
in development of an interactive model for portfolio selection and opti-
mization. In December 2010, Kejariwal joined the Portfolio and Decision
Analysis (PDA) group at Pfizer Inc. and has led global cross-­functional
teams in construction and trade-­off analysis of strategic alternatives for
inflammation and oncology molecules approaching phase III decisions. As
a director in PDA, he is responsible for project- and portfolio-­level decision
support for the Inflammation Therapeutic Area (TA), and portfolio prioriti-
zation and optimization for the Global Innovative Business Segment.

Ia Ko, PhD, is a research consultant at Denison Consulting. She is involved

in conducting applied research on various topic areas such as organiza-
tional culture and innovation for both academic and industry audiences.
She holds a PhD in organizational behavior from Claremont Graduate
University and a master’s in organizational development from Bowling
Green State University. Prior to joining Denison, Dr. Ko was involved in
applied research, leader­ship training development, large-­scale change,
and program evaluation projects for various organizations. Her past and
current research interests include organizational culture, engagement,
flow, innovation, safety, and women in leader­ship.

Lindsey Kotrba, PhD, is the president of Denison Consulting. As presi-

dent, she is focused on the continual growth and development of Denison
Consulting as the global leader in providing high-­performance culture
and leader­ship solutions to organizations and consultants. Dr. Kotrba has
xii Contributors

been a part of the Denison organization since 2006 and was the director of
research and development before moving into the president role. She is an
active researcher on the topics of organizational culture, leader­ship, and
effectiveness with her published research appearing in outlets such as
the Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human
Relations, and Advances in Global Leadership. She is also a regular presenter at
conferences such as the Society for Industrial/­Organizational Psychology,
and the Academy of Management. Dr. Kotrba earned her MA and PhD in
industrial/­organizational psychology from Wayne State University.

Michael A. Martorelli, CFA, is a director at Fairmount Partners. Martorelli

came to Fairmount after serving as managing director of research and
senior healthcare analyst at Investec Inc. and its predecessor PMG Capital.
Prior to PMG Capital, he spent more than ten years at Janney Montgomery
Scott as a research analyst covering companies in various segments of the
healthcare industry. In addition to participating in Fairmount’s healthcare
industry investment banking activities, he contributes to the firm’s mar-
keting and business development efforts with periodic industry reports
and conference presentations. For most of the past decade, he has focused
his writing and speaking efforts on pharmaceutical services companies,
including those providing tools and technologies used in preclinical and
clinical research functions. Martorelli has participated in conferences and
similar programs covering various outsourcing topics sponsored by the
Drug Information Association (DIA), the Association for Clinical Research
Professionals (ACRP), the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
(CSDD), and other organizations. In addition to speaking, he has writ-
ten for publications such as Dorland’s Medical and Healthcare Marketplace
Guide, Contract Pharma, Pharmaceutical Executive, and Clinical Research and
Regulatory Affairs. Martorelli earned his MBA and his BS in business admin-
istration from Drexel University. For the past several years, he has taught
finance and investment courses as a member of Drexel’s adjunct faculty.

Michele Pontinen has over 25 years’ experience as an employee and a

management consultant delivering transformation services to the bio-­
pharmaceutical industry and government healthcare institutes. She has
delivered strategic, cutting-­edge solutions, including successfully bridging
the data gap between early and clinical development of ethical drugs and
biologics thus reducing timelines to approval by regulatory authorities;
negotiating and managing information technology and business services
contracts, transforming early manufacturing and clinical development
business operations; integrating biomedical and clinical data, enabling
the strategic use of information technology within the U.S. federal health
industry; developing quality system management strategies, based upon
the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection approach;
Contributors xiii

and working with clinical and early development information technology

vendors to integrate leading edge technical solutions for preclinical and
clinical development.

Melinda S. Shockley, PhD, is an accomplished business development

professional and entrepreneur. She co-foundd Innolign Biomedical, LLC,
a biomedical company developing innovative 3D micro-organ and tissue
systems for drug screening and toxicity assessment. She currently holds
the position of president of Innolign and is responsible for corporate strat-
egy and management. Between 2001 and 2010, Dr. Shockley was senior
director, business development at Medarex, Inc. where she helped to build
its pipeline of therapeutic antibody products by establishing strategic col-
laborations, in-licensing intellectual property and early-stage technologies,
and acquiring assets. Prior to the acquisition of Medarex by Bristol-Myers
Squibb Company, Dr. Shockley was responsible for certain Medarex out-
licensing initiatives with a focus on defining and directing the company’s
strategy to maximize the value of its antibody drug conjugate technology
platform and related therapeutic products. Dr. Shockely has negotiated
approximately one hundred contracts to date with a potential total value
of several hundred millon dollars, excluding royalties. Prior to joining
Medarex, Dr. Shockley was a licensing associate, life sciences at The Johns
Hopkins Unviersity. She also held technology transfer positions at the
National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
and the University of Pennsylvania. She conducted research as an NRSA
postdoctoral fellow in pharmacology at the multidisciplinary Institute for
Medicine and Engineering at the Unversity of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shockely
earned her PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of
California, San Franciso and BA in biology from West Virginia University.
Dr. Shockley’s diverse research background includes G-protein coupled
receptor biology as related to neurodegenerative disease, cancer, and ath-
erosclerosis; general mechanotransduction processes in cell biology and
disease; and the cellular regulation of cholesterol production.

Jian Wang earned his PhD in bioengineering from the University of

Washington in 1996. After a brief postdoctoral post at Carnegie Mellon
University, Dr. Wang joined the biotechnology industry—first with
Cellomics and then Physiome Sciences and Paradigm Genetics. Dr. Wang
joined BioFortis in 2004 as vice president of product development and
was later promoted to president and CEO. Through his tenure in the bio-
pharma industry, Dr. Wang developed several commercial life science
informatics products with customers in academia, government, and the
biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Wang delights in helping his customers
unleash the power of informatics to increase their productivity in scien-
tific, clinical, and translational research.
chapter one

Redefining innovation
Jeffrey S. Handen

Contents
References........................................................................................................... 10

The innovative biopharmaceutical industry is facing unprecedented chal-

lenges as it struggles to cope with a host of factors, highlighted by new
and ever-­increasing economic pressures. By way of one measure as exam-
ple, the rate of new molecular entity (NME) approvals (both new drug
applications [NDAs] and biologics license applications [BLAs]) by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and
Research (CDER) has essentially remained flat over the past decade, hov-
ering around 23 NME approvals per year, as has the rate of priority NDA
approvals, averaging just around 21 priority approvals per year, since 2004.
Paired with patent expiries, the results are declining compound annual
growth rates (CAGRs) in the industry, as measured by the 14 large-­cap
pharmaceutical companies. Industry-­wide sales CAGRs declined from
10% in the 1999 to 2004 period to 6.7% in the 2005 to 2009 period to projec-
tions of 1.2% through 2014 (Goodman, 2009).
The industry is facing increasing pricing pressures as a result of a
number of policy and societal stressors that have unfortunately served to
frame the economic discussions of biopharmaceuticals and biopharma-
ceutical development in terms of cost rather than value. Although total
expenditures on pharmaceuticals per capita in the United States have
exponentially increased over the past 20 years (OECD, 2011), outcomes
and evidence-­based medicine approaches have lagged in their develop-
ment and are still systematically failing to keep track to demonstrate
the value of increased healthcare spending on medicines (e.g., reduced
hospitalizations, increased quality of life measures, and reduced time
missed from work). Additionally, these factors have been exacerbated by
the very success of the innovative biopharmaceutical industry itself as
more and more innovator drugs that have treated an exceptional diver-
sity of the global disease burden come off patent protection and generic
versions are brought to market. For instance, even though world-­branded

1
2 Jeffrey S. Handen

pharmaceutical sales in 2010 were estimated at $286 billion (PhRMA, 2010),

the growth of generic drug sales is 4 times higher than overall growth
in innovator sales, and represented $107.5 billion in sales in 2010, com-
pared to $73.5 billion in 2006. In 2010, 75.4% of prescriptions written in the
United States were for generic drugs, predicted to approach 80% in 2012
(IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, 2012). An ever-­increasing per-
centage of the global disease burden is now more than adequately treated
by generic drugs. Though there obviously still exists large segments of
unmet medical needs and opportunities for significant improvement in
existing pharmacological standards of care, the innovator biopharmaceu-
tical industry has not been able to maintain the historic rates of break-
through innovation.
Innovator companies are increasingly finding themselves left behind
in justifying their value proposition in the public’s mind. Nowhere is this
perhaps more evident than in the increasing use of compulsory licensing
of innovative pharmaceuticals, first instituted through the World Trade
Organization’s (WTO) Trade-­Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) Agreement, to produce generic copies of innovative drugs not just
for domestic consumption in “national … or other circumstances of extreme
urgency” but for export. The goal behind TRIPS—to facilitate life-­saving
innovation reaching severely economically depressed countries or least-­
developed countries (LDCs)—though noble in its intent, has been ques-
tionable in its execution and outcome, as a recent analysis has shown that
approximately 50% of the compulsory licensing episodes between 1995 and
2011 occurred not in LDCs but in upper-­middle-­income countries (Beall and
Kuhn, 2012). This observation is not intended to serve as a discussion or cri-
tique of compulsory licensing and the TRIPS Agreement, but rather to sug-
gest that the observed trend of increasing usage of compulsory licensing is
bound up in the industry’s failure to adequately justify its value proposition.
Increasing resource requirements coupled with rising rates of attri-
tion in the product development lifecycle are also plaguing the industry
despite everyone’s best efforts to bring efficiencies to the value chain in
the guises of technological innovations, process-­reengineering efforts,
new collaborative partnering, new sourcing strategies, and cultural shifts.
The industry average fully capitalized cost (including the cost of attrition)
to develop one successful new drug has doubled over the past decade
and the clinical development time to develop that drug has continued to
increase across that same time period, increasing by approximately 50%
(Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, 2010). Industry aver-
age probability of success (POS) rates from a variety of studies have con-
tinued to show decreases. Major company POS from phase I to market
has decreased from 10% in 2002–2004 to 5% in 2006–2008 (Arrowsmith,
2012). Between-­phase attrition rates as measured from the Pharmaceutical
Industry Database (PhID), containing information on research and
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
MOUNT HUNGER, MILL SETTLEMENT, BARTON'S
RIVER, VERMONT, May 19, 1896.

DEAREST PAPA,--Good-morning! I am answering your long letter a

little sooner than I expected to, because I want you to do something
for me in a business way; that's the way March says it must be.
I don't know how to begin to tell you, but I 've joined the
N.B.B.O.O. Society and one of the by-laws is that we must help
others all we can and just as much as we can. I wish you'd been at
the initiashun. (I don't know about that spelling, and I 'm in a hurry,
or I 'd ask.) I had the hand of fellowship from a supposed corpse's
hand first, and then I was branded on the arm. And afterwards they
all took me in, and now we 're raising four hundred chickens to help
others; I 'll tell you all about it when you come. Chi, that's the hired
man, but he is really our friend, took me sitting-hen hunting day
before yesterday, for I am to own some myself; and we drove all
over the hills to the farmhouses and found and bought twelve, or
rather Chi did, for I had to borrow the money of him, as I felt so bad
when I kissed you good-bye that I forgot to tell you my quarterly
allowance was all gone, and I know you won't like my borrowing of
Chi, for you have said so many times never to owe anybody and I've
always tried to pay for everything except when I had to borrow of
Gabrielle, or Mrs. Scott, when I forgot my purse.
But truly the hens were in such an awful hurry to sit, that it did
seem too bad to keep them waiting even three days till I could get
some money from you; and then, too, we 've all of us, March and
Rose and Budd and Cherry and me, bet on which hen would get the
first chicken, and that chicken is going to be a prize chicken and
especially fatted, and of course, if I waited for the money to come
from you, I could n't stand a chance of coming out ahead in our four
hundred chicken race, so I borrowed of Chi. The hens came to just
$4 and eighty cents. I'll pay you back when I earn it, and don't you
think it would have been a pity to lose the chance for the prize
chicken just for that borrow?
Please send the money by return mail. I 've other letters to
write, so please excuse my not paragraphing and so little
punctuation, but I 've so much to do and this must go at once.

Your loving and devoted daughter,

HAZEL CLYDE.

P.S. The hens are sitting around everywhere. Give my love to

Wilkins. H.C.

The Doctor shouted; then he stepped to the dining-room door and

called, "Wifie, come here and bring that letter."
Mrs. Heath came in smiling, with a letter in her hand, which,
after cordially greeting Mr. Clyde, she read to him,--an amazed and
outwitted father.

MOUNT HUNGER, MILL SETTLEMENT, BARTON'S

RIVER, VERMONT, May 19, 1896.

MY DEAR MRS. HEATH,--Please thank my dear Doctor Heath for the

note he sent me two weeks ago. I ought to write to him instead of
to you, for I don't owe you a letter (your last one was so sweet I
answered it right off), but he never allows his patients strawberry
preserve and jam, so it would be no use to ask his help just now, as
this is pure business, March says.
We are trying to help others, and the strawberries--wild ones--
are as thick as spatter--going to be--all over the pastures, and we 're
going to pick quarts and quarts, and Rose is going to preserve them,
and then we 're going to sell them.
Do you think of anybody who would like some of this preserve?
If you do, will you kindly let me know by return mail?
I can't tell just the price, and March says that is a great
drawback in real business, and this is real--but it will not be more
than $1 and twenty-five cents a quart. They will be fine for
luncheon. I never tasted any half so good at home.
My dear love to the Doctor and a large share for yourself from

Your loving friend,

HAZEL CLYDE.

P.S. Rose says it is n't fair for people to order without knowing the
quality, so we 've done up a little of Mrs. Blossom's in some
Homeepatic (I don't know where that "h" ought to come in) pellet
bottles, and will send you a half-dozen "for samples," March says, to
send to any one to taste you think would like to order. H.C.

"The cure is working famously," said Doctor Heath, rubbing his

hands in glee.
"Well," said Mr. Clyde, laughing, "I may as well make the best of
it; but I can't help wondering whether the wholesale grocers in town
have been asked to place orders with Mount Hunger, or the
Washington Market dealers for prospective chickens! There 's your
office-bell; I won't keep you longer, but if this 'special case' of yours
should develop any new symptoms, just let me know."
"I 'll keep you informed," rejoined the Doctor. "Better run up
there pretty soon, Johnny," he called after him.
"I think it's high time, Dick. Good-bye."
At that very moment, a symptom of another sort was
developing in Z---- Hall, Number 9, at Harvard.
Jack Sherrill and his chum were discussing the last evening's
Club theatricals. "I saw that pretty Maude Seaton in the third or
fourth row, Jack; did she come on for that,--which, of course, means
you?"
"Wish I might think so," said Jack, half in earnest, half in jest,
pulling slowly at his corn-cob pipe.
"By Omar Khayyam, Jack! you don't mean to say you 're hit, at
last!"
"Hit,--yes; but it's only a flesh-wound at present,--nothing
dangerous about it."
"She 's got the style, though, and the pull. I know a half-dozen
of the fellows got dropped on to-night's cotillion."
"Kept it for me," said Jack, quietly.
"No, really, though--" and his chum fell to thinking rather
seriously for him.
Just then came the morning's mail,--notes, letters, special
delivery stamps, all the social accessories a popular Harvard man
knows so well. Jack looked over his carelessly,--invitations to dinner,
to theatre parties, "private views," golf parties, etc. He pushed them
aside, showing little interest. He, like his Cousin Hazel, was used to
it.
 The morning's mail was an old story, for Sherrill was worth a
fortune in his own right, as several hundred mothers and daughters
in New York and Boston and Philadelphia knew full well.
Moreover, if he had not had a penny in prospect, Jack Sherrill
would have attracted by his own manly qualities and his
exceptionally good looks. His riches, to which he had been born, had
not as yet wholly spoiled him, but they cheated him of that ambition
that makes the best of young manhood, and Life was out of tune at
times--how and why, he did not know, and there was no one to tell
him.
He had rather hoped for a note from Maude Seaton, thanking
him, in her own charming way, for the flowers he had sent her on
her arrival from New York the day before. True, she had worn some
in her corsage, but, for all Jack knew, they might have been another
man's; for Maude Seaton was never known to have less than four or
five strings to her bow. It was just this uncertainty about her that
attracted Jack.
"Hello! Here 's a letter for you by mistake in my pile," said his
chum.
"Why, this is from my little Cousin Hazel, who is rusticating just
now somewhere in the Green Mountains." Jack opened it hastily and
read,--

MOUNT HUNGER, MILL SETTLEMENT, BARTON'S

RIVER, VERMONT, May 19, 1896.

DEAREST COUSIN JACK,--It is perfectly lovely up here, and I 've

been inishiated into a Secret Society like your Dicky Club, and one of
the by-laws is to help others all we can and wherever we can and as
long as ever we can, and so I 've thought of that nice little spread
you gave last year after the foot-ball game, and how nice the table
looked and what good things you had, but I don't remember any
strawberry jam or preserves, do you?
We 're hatching four hundred chickens to help others,--I mean
we have set 40 sitting hens on 520 eggs, not all the 40 on the five
hundred and twenty at once, you know; but, I mean, each one of
the 40 hens are sitting on 13 eggs apiece, and March says we must
expect to lose 120 eggs--I mean, chickens,--as the hens are very
careless and sit sideways--I 've seen them myself--and so an extra
egg is apt to get chilly, and the chickens can't stand any chilliness,
March says. But Chi, that's my new friend, says some eggs have a
double yolk, and maybe, there 'll be some twins to make up for the
loss.
Anyway, we want 400 chickens to sell about Thanksgiving time,
and, of course, we can't get any money till that time. So now I 've
got back to your spread again and the preserves, and while we 're
waiting for the chickens, we are going to make preserves--dee-
licious ones! I mean we are going to pick them and Rose is going to
preserve them. We 've decided to ask $1 and a quarter a quart for
them; Rose--that's Rose Blossom--says it is dear, but if you could see
my Rose-pose, as Chi calls her, you 'd think it cheap just to eat them
if she made them. She 's perfectly lovely--prettier than any of the
New York girls, and when she kneads bread and does up the dishes,
she sings like a bird, something about love. I'll write it down for you,
sometime. I 'm in love with her.
 Please ask your college friends if they don't want some jam and
wild strawberry preserves. If they do, March says they had better
order soon, as I've written to New York to see about some other
orders.

Yours devotedly,
HAZEL.

P.S. I 've sent you a sample of the strawberry preserve in a

homeepahtic pellet bottle, to taste; Rose says it is n't fair to ask
people to buy without their knowing what they buy. I saw that Miss
Seaton just before I came away; she came to call on me and
brought some flowers. She said I looked like you--which was an
awful whopper because I had my head shaved, as you know; I
asked her if she had heard from you, and she said she had. She is
n't half as lovely as Rose-pose. H.C.

IX
THE PRIZE CHICKEN

There was wild excitement, as well as consternation, in the

farmhouse on the Mountain.
On the next day but one after Hazel had sent her letters, Chi
had brought up from the Mill Settlement a telegram which had come
on the stage from Barton's. It was addressed to, "Hazel Clyde, Mill
Settlement, Barton's River, Vermont," and ran thus:--
CAMBRIDGE, May 20, 1 P.M.
Hope to get in our order ahead of New York time. Seventeen
dozen of each kind. Letter follows.
JACK.

"Seventeen dozen!" screamed Rose, on hearing the telegram.

"Seventeen dozen of each kind!" cried Budd.
"Oh, quick, March, do see what it comes to!" said Hazel.
Then such an arithmetical hubbub broke loose as had never
been heard before on the Mountain.
"Seventeen times twelve," said Rose,--"let me see; seven times
two are fourteen, one to carry--do keep still, March!" But March
went on with:--
"Twelve times four are forty-eight--seventeen times forty-eight,
hm--seven times eight are fifty-six, five to carry--Shut up, Budd; I
can't hear myself think." But Budd gave no heed, and continued his
computation.
"Four times seventeen are--four times seven are twenty-eight,
two to carry; four times one are four and two are--I say, you 've put
me all out!" shouted Budd, and, putting his fingers in his ears, he
retired to a corner. Rose continued to mumble with her eyes shut to
concentrate her mind upon her problem, threatening Cherry
impatiently when she interrupted with her peculiar solution, which
she had just thought out:--
"If one quart cost one dollar and twenty-five cents, twelve
quarts will cost twelve times one dollar and twenty-five cents, which
is, er--twelve times one are twelve; twelve times twenty-five! Oh,
gracious, that's awful! What's twelve times twenty-five, March?"
 "Shut up," growled March; "you 've put me all off the track."
"Me, too," said Rose, in an aggrieved tone.
Mrs. Blossom had been listening from the bedroom, and now
came in, suppressing her desire to smile at the reddened and
perplexed faces. "Here 's a pencil, March, suppose you figure it out
on paper."
A sigh of relief was audible throughout the room, as March sat
down to work out the result. "Eight hundred and sixteen quarts at
one dollar twenty-five a quart," said March to himself; then, with a
bound that shook the long-room, he shouted, "One thousand and
twenty dollars!" and therewith broke forth into singing:--

"Glory, glory, halleluia!

Glory, glory, halleluia!
Glory, glory, halleluia,
For the N.B.B.O.O.!"

The rest joined in the singing with such goodwill that the noise
brought in Chi from the barn. When he was told the reason for the
rejoicing, he looked thoughtful, then sober, then troubled.
"What's the matter, Chi? Cheer up! You have n't got to pick
them," said March.
"'T ain't that; but I hate to throw cold water on any such
countin'-your-chickens-'fore-they 're-hatched business," said Chi.
"'T is n't chickens; it's preserves, Chi," laughed Rose.
"I know that, too," said Chi, gravely. "But suppose you do a little
figuring on the hind-side of the blackboard."
 "What do you mean, Chi?" asked Hazel.
"Well, I 'll figure, 'n' see what you think about it. Seventeen
dozen times four, how much, March?"
"Eight hundred and sixteen."
"Hm! eight hundred and sixteen glass jars at twelve and a half
cents apiece--let me see: eight into eight once; eight into one no
times 'n' one over. There now, your jars 'll cost you just one hundred
and two dollars."
There was a universal groan.
"'N' that ain't all. Sugar 's up to six cents a pound, 'n' to keep
preserves as they ought to be kept takes about a pound to a quart.
Hm, eight hundred 'n' sixteen pounds of sugar at six cents a pound--
move up my point 'n' multiply by six--forty-eight dollars 'n' ninety-six
cents; added to the other--"
"Oh, don't, Chi!" groaned one and all.
"It spoils everything," said Rose, actually ready to cry with
disappointment.
"Well, Molly Stark, you 've got to look forwards and backwards
before you promise to do things," said Chi, serenely; and Rose,
hearing the Molly Stark, knew just what Chi meant.
She went straight up to him, and, laying both hands on his
shoulders, looked up smiling into his face. "I 'll be brave, Chi; we 'll
make it work somehow," she said gently; and Chi was not ashamed
to take one of the little hands and rub it softly against his unshaven
cheek.
"That's my Rose-pose," he said. "Now, don't let's cross the
bridges till we get to them; let's wait till we hear from New York."
They had not long to wait. The next day's mail brought three
letters,--from Mrs. Heath, Mr. Clyde, and Jack. Hazel could not read
them fast enough to suit her audience. There was an order from
Mrs. Heath for two dozen of each kind, and the assurance that she
would ask her friends, but she would like her order filled first.
Mr. Clyde wrote that he was coming up very soon and would
advance Hazel's quarterly allowance; at which Hazel cried, "Oh-ee!"
and hugged first herself, then Mrs. Blossom, but said not a word.
She wanted to surprise them with the glass jars and the sugar. Her
father had enclosed five dollars with which to pay Chi, and he and
Hazel were closeted for full a quarter of an hour in the pantry,
discussing ways and means.
Jack wrote enthusiastically of the preserves and chickens, and,
like Hazel, added a postscript as follows:
"Don't forget you said you would write down for me the song
about Love that Miss Blossom sings when she is kneading bread.
Miss Seaton is just now visiting in Boston. I 'm to play in a polo
match out at the Longmeadow grounds next week, and she stays for
that." This, likewise, Hazel kept to herself.
Meanwhile, the strawberry blossoms were starring the pastures,
but only here and there a tiny green button showed itself. It was a
discouraging outlook for the other Blossoms to wait five long weeks
before they could begin to earn money; and the thought of the
chickens, especially the prize chicken, proved a source of comfort as
well as speculation.
As the twenty-first day after setting the hens drew near, the
excitement of the race was felt to be increasing. Hazel had tied a
narrow strip of blue flannel about the right leg of each of her twelve
hens, that there might be no mistake; and the others had followed
her example, March choosing yellow; Cherry, white; Rose, red; and
Budd, green.
The barn was near the house, only a grass-plat with one big elm
in the centre separated it from the end of the woodshed. As Chi
said, the hens were sitting all around everywhere; on the nearly
empty hay-mow there were some twenty-five, and the rest were in
vacant stalls and feed-boxes.
It was a warm night in early June. Hazel was thinking over
many things as she lay wakeful in her wee bedroom. To-morrow was
the day; somebody would get the prize chicken. Hazel hoped she
might be the winner. Then she recalled something Chi had said
about hens being curious creatures, set in their ways, and never
doing anything just as they were expected to do it, and that there
was n't any time-table by which chickens could be hatched to the
minute. What if one were to come out to-night! The more she
thought, the more she longed to assure herself of the condition of
things in the barn. She tossed and turned, but could not settle to
sleep. At last she rose softly; the great clock in the long-room had
just struck eleven. She looked out of her one window and into the
face of a moon that for a moment blinded her.
Then she quietly put on her white bath-robe, and, taking her
shoes in her hand, stepped noiselessly out into the kitchen.
There was not a sound in the house except the ticking of the
clock. Softly she crept to the woodshed door and slipped out.
Chi, who had the ears of an Indian, heard the soft "crush,
crush," of the bark and chips underneath his room. He rose
noiselessly, drew on his trousers, and slipped his suspenders over his
shoulders, took his rifle from the rack, and crept stealthily as an
Apache down the stairs. Chi thought he was on the track of an
enormous woodchuck that had baffled all his efforts to trap, shoot,
and decoy him, as well as his attempts to smoke and drown him out.
But nothing was moving in or about the shed. He stepped outside,
puzzled as to the noise he had heard.
"By George Washin'ton!" he exclaimed under his breath, "what's
up now?" for he had caught sight of a little figure in white fairly
scooting over the grass-plat under the elm towards the barn. In a
moment she disappeared in the opening, for on warm nights the
great doors were not shut.
"Guess I 'd better get out of the way; 't would scare her to
death to see a man 'n' a gun at this time of night. It's that prize
chicken, I 'll bet." And Chi chuckled to himself. Then he tiptoed as
far as the barn door, looked in cautiously, and, seeing no one, but
hearing a creak overhead, he slipped into a stall and crouched
behind a pile of grass he had cut that afternoon for the cattle.
He heard the feet go "pat, pat, pat," overhead. He knew by the
sound that Hazel was examining the nests. Then another noise--
Cherry's familiar giggle--fell upon his ear. He looked out cautiously
from behind the grass. Sure enough; there were the twins, robed in
sheets and barefooted. Snickering and giggling, they made for the
ladder leading to the loft.
"The Old Harry 's to pay to-night," said Chi, grimly, to himself.
"When those two get together on a spree, things generally hum! I 'd
better stay where I 'm needed most."
Hazel, too, had caught the sound of the giggle and snicker, and
recognized it at once.
 "Goodness!" she thought, "if they should see me, 't would
frighten Cherry into fits, she 's so nervous. I 'd better hide while they
're here. They 've come to see about that chicken, just as I have!"
Hazel had all she could do to keep from laughing out loud. She lay
down upon a large pile of hay and drew it all over her. "They can't
see me now, and I can watch them," she thought, with a good deal
of satisfaction.
Surely the proceedings were worth watching. The moonlight
flooded the flooring of the loft, and every detail could be plainly
seen.
"Nobody can hear us here if we do talk," said Budd. "You 'll
have to hoist them up first, to see if there are any chickens, and be
sure and look at the rag on the legs; when you come to a green
one, it's mine, you know."
"Oh, Budd! I can't hoist them," said Cherry, in a distressed
voice.
"They do act kinder queer," replied Budd, who was trying to lift
a sleeping hen off her nest, to which she seemed glued. "I 'll tell you
what's better than that; just put your ear down and listen, and if you
hear a 'peep-peep,' it's a chicken."
Cherry, the obedient slave of Budd, crawled about over the
flooring on her hands and knees, listening first at one nest, then at
another, for the expected "peep-peep."
"I don't hear anything," said Cherry, in an aggrieved tone, "but
the old hens guggling when I poke under them. Oh! but here 's a
green rag sticking out, Budd."
"And a speckled hen?" said Budd, eagerly.
"Yes."
 "Well, that's the one I 've been looking for; it's dark over here in
this corner. Lemme see."
Budd put both hands under the hen and lifted her gently. "Ak--
ok--ork--ach," gasped the hen, as Budd took her firmly around the
throat; but she was too sleepy to care much what became of her,
and so hung limp and silent.
"I 'll hold the hen, Cherry, and you take up those eggs one at a
time and hold them to my ear."
"What for?" said Cherry.
"Now don't be a loony, but do as I tell you," said Budd,
impatiently. Cherry did as she was bidden; Budd listened intently.
"By cracky! there 's one!" he exclaimed. "Here, help me set this
hen back again, and keep that one out."
"What for?" queried Cherry, forgetting her former lesson.
"Oh, you ninny!--here, listen, will you?" Budd put the egg to her
ear.
"Why, that's a chicken peeping inside. I can hear him," said
Cherry, in an awed voice.
"Yes, and I 'm going to let him out," said Budd, triumphantly.
"But then you'll have the prize chicken, Budd," said Cherry,
rather dubiously, for she had wanted it herself.
"Of course, you goosey, what do you suppose I came out here
for?" demanded Budd.
"But, Budd, will it be fair?" said Cherry, timidly.
"Fair!" muttered Budd; "it's fair enough if it's out first. It's their
own fault if they don't know enough to get ahead of us."
"Did you think it all out yourself, Budd?" queried Cherry,
admiringly, watching Budd's proceeding with wide-open eyes.
 "Yup," said Budd, shortly.
They were not far from Hazel's hiding-place, and, by raising her
head a few inches, she could see the whole process.
First Budd listened intently at one end of the egg, then at the
other. He drew out a large pin from his pajamas and began very
carefully to pick the shell.
"Oh, gracious, Budd! what are you doing?" cried Cherry.
"What you see," said Budd, a little crossly, for his conscience
was not wholly at ease.
He picked and picked, and finally made an opening. He
examined it carefully.
"Oh, thunder!" he exclaimed under his breath, "I 've picked the
wrong end."
"What do you mean?" persisted Cherry.
"I wanted to open the 'peep-peep' end first, so he could
breathe," replied Budd, intent upon his work. Cherry watched
breathlessly. At last the other end was opened, and Budd began to
detach the shell from something which might have been a worm, a
fish, a pollywog, or a baby white mouse, for all it looked like a
chicken. It lay in Budd's hand.
"Oh, Budd, you 've killed it!" cried Cherry, beginning to sniff.
"Shut up, Cherry Blossom, or I'll leave you," threatened Budd.
Just then the moon was obscured by a passing cloud, and the loft
became suddenly dark and shadowy. Cherry screamed under her
breath.
"Oh, Budd, don't leave me; I can't see you!"
There was a soft rapid stride over the flooring; and before Budd
well knew what had happened, he was seized by the binding of his
pajamas, lifted, and shaken with such vigor that his teeth struck
together and he felt the jar in the top of his head.
As the form loomed so unexpectedly before her, Cherry
screamed with fright.
"I 'll teach you to play a business trick like this on us, you mean
sneaking little rascal!" roared March. "Do you think I did n't see you
creeping out of the room along the side of my bed on all fours? You
did n't dare to walk out like a man, and I might have known you
were up to no good!" Another shake followed that for a moment
dazed Budd. Then, as he felt the flooring beneath his feet, he turned
in a towering passion of guilt and rage on March.
"You 're a darned sneak yourself," he howled rather than cried.
"Take that for your trouble!" Raising his doubled fist, he aimed a
quick, hard blow at March's stomach. But, somehow, before it
struck, one strong hand--not March's--held his as in a vice, and
another, stronger, hoisted him by the waist-band of his pajamas and
held him, squirming and howling, suspended for a moment; then he
felt himself tossed somewhere. He fell upon the hay under which
Hazel had taken refuge, and landed upon her with almost force
enough to knock the breath from her body. Cherry, meanwhile, had
not ceased screaming under her breath, and, as Budd descended so
unexpectedly upon Hazel, a great groan and a sharp wail came forth
from the hay, to the mortal terror of all but Chi, who grew white at
the thought of what might have happened to his Lady-bird, and,
unintentionally, through him.
That awful groan proved too much for the children. Gathering
themselves together in less time than it takes to tell it, they fled as
well as they could in the dark,--down the ladder, out through the
barn, over the grass-plat, into the house, and dove into bed,
trembling in every limb.
"What on earth is the matter, children?" said Mrs. Blossom,
appearing at the foot of the stairs. "Did one of you fall out of bed?"
Budd's head was under the bedclothes, his teeth chattering
through fear; likewise Cherry. March assumed as firm a tone as he
could.
"Budd had a sort of nightmare, mother, but he 's all right now."
March felt sick at the deception.
"Well, settle down now and go to sleep; it's just twelve." And
Mrs. Blossom went back into the bedroom where Mr. Blossom was
still soundly sleeping.
Meanwhile, Chi was testing Hazel to see that no harm had been
done.
"Oh, I 'm all right," said Hazel, rather breathlessly. "But it really
knocked the breath out of my body." She laughed. "I never thought
of your catching up Budd that way and plumping him down on top
of me!"
"Guess my wits had gone wool-gatherin', when I never thought
of your hidin' there," said Chi, recovering from his fright. "But that
boy made me so pesky mad, tryin' to play such a game on all of us,
that I kind of lost my temper 'n' did n't see straight. Well--" he
heaved a sigh of relief, "he 's got his come-uppance!"
"Where do you suppose that poor little chicken is?"
"We 'll look him up; the moon 's comin' out again."
There, close by the nest, lay the queer something on the floor.
"I 'll tuck it in right under the old hen's breast, 'n' then, if there 's
any life in it, it 'll come to by mornin'." He examined it closely. "I 'll
come out 'n' see. Come, we 'd better be gettin' in 'fore 't is dark
again--"
He put the poor mite of a would-be chicken carefully under the
old hen, where it was warm and downy, and as he did so, he caught
sight of the rag hanging over the edge of the nest. He looked at it
closely; then slapping his thigh, he burst into a roar of laughter.
"What is it, Chi?" said Hazel, laughing, too, at Chi's mirth.
"Look here, Lady-bird! you 've got the Prize Chicken, after all.
That boy could n't tell green from blue in the moonlight, 'n' he 's
hatched out one of yours. By George Washin'ton! that's a good one,-
-serves him right," he said, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes.
The chicken lived, but never seemed to belong to any one in
particular; and as Chi said solemnly the next morning, "The less said
on this Mountain about prize chickens, the better it 'll be for us all."

X
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

It was a busy summer in and about the farmhouse on Mount

Hunger. What with tending the chickens--there were four hundred
and two in all--and strawberry-picking and preserving, and in due
season a repetition of the process with raspberries and blackberries,
the days seemed hardly long enough to accomplish all the young
people had planned.
Mr. Clyde came up for two days in June, and upon his return
told Doctor Heath that he, too, felt as if he needed that kind of a
cure.
Hazel was the picture of health and fast becoming what Chi had
predicted, "an A Number 1" beauty. Her dark eyes sparkled with the
joy of life; on her rounded cheeks there was the red of the rose; the
skull-cap had been discarded, and a fine crop of soft, silky rings of
dark brown hair had taken its place.
"Never, no, never, have I had such good times," she wrote to
her Cousin Jack at Newport. "We eat on the porch, and make believe
camp out in the woods, and we ride on Bess and Bob all over the
Mountain. We've about finished the preserves and jams, and Rose
has only burnt herself twice. The chickens, Chi says, are going to be
prime ones; it 's awfully funny to see them come flying and hopping
and running towards us the minute they see us--March says it's the
'Charge of the Light Brigade.'
"I wish you could be up here and have some of the fun,--but I
'm afraid you 're too old. I enclose the song Rose sings which you
asked me for. I don't understand it, but it's perfectly beautiful when
she sings it."
Hazel had asked Rose for the words of the song, telling her that
her Cousin Jack at Harvard would like to have them. Rose looked
surprised for a moment.
"What can he want of them?" she asked in a rather dignified
manner; and Hazel, thinking she was giving the explanation the
most reasonable as well as agreeable, replied:--
"I don't know for sure, but I think--you won't tell, will you,
Rose?"
"Of course I won't. I don't even know your cousin, to begin
with."
 "I think he is going to be engaged, or is, to Miss Seaton of New
York. All his friends think she is awfully pretty, and papa says she is
fascinating. I think Jack wanted them to give to her."
"Oh," said Rose, in a cool voice with a circumflex inflection, then
added in a decidedly toploftical tone, "I've no objection to his
making use of them. I 'll copy them for you."
"Thank you, Rose," said Hazel, rather puzzled and a little hurt at
Rose's new manner.
This conversation took place the first week in August, and the
verses were duly forwarded to Jack, who read them over twice, and
then, thrusting them into his breast-pocket, went over to the Casino,
whistling softly to himself on the way. There, meeting his chum and
some other friends, he proposed a riding-trip through the Green
Mountain region for the latter part of August.
"The Colonel and his wife will go with us, I 'm sure, and any of
the girls who can ride well will jump at the chance," said his chum.
"It's a novelty after so much coaching."
"I 'll go over and see Miss Seaton about it," said Jack, and
walked off singing to himself,--

"'--the stars above

Shine ever on Love'--"

His friend turned to the others. "That's a go; I 've never seen Sherrill
so hard hit before." Then he fell to discussing the new plan with the
rest.
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.

More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge

connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and

personal growth every day!

ebookbell.com