58 WHEN DOGWOOD BLOOMS 



I saw a girl lying down among the grass. A Dog- 

 wood blossom was in her hair, and a great branch 

 of Dogwood blossoms drooped down over Old 

 Adam. 



I had never seen this girl before; but that very 

 minute I felt sure she was the same one Tommy 

 had seen in Secret Valley. Her hair hung straight 

 by the sides of her face, and she never once moved, 

 even when we ran up and jumped down on the 

 other side of the rock. I asked Sallie and Philip 

 if they had seen her there in the grass, and each 

 said " no," which I thought very queer. 



We went quickly to Tommy's house, for I 

 wanted to tell him about seeing the strange girl. 

 He said he had caught no glimpse of her, although 

 he'd been sitting on the top of Old Adam for a 

 good part of the afternoon. We both wondered 

 then if what Grandmother had said was true, and 

 if she could be the spirit of the Dogwood, as well 

 as of Secret Valley. Tommy surely had seen her 

 and so had I, and each time she was quite still. 



" When I see her," Philip Todd said, " I'll call 

 out something to make her move." 



" Only this afternoon I saw an elf in a Dog- 

 wood nest," Tommy told us, quite seriously; " a 

 smiling little elf, and one that asked funny ques- 

 tions whenever I went near." 



But Tommy didn't deceive us, for we all knew 

 the elf he meant was Little Trudy. 



