Within fifteen minutes the girls spotted Joanne at a distance. She did not notice the car, and unaware that she was being observed, walked slowly toward the rooming house, her head drooping dejectedly.

"She didn't get the job," George murmured. "I feel so sorry for her."

As Joanne approached. Nancy called to her. Joanne glanced up quickly and mustered a smile.

"No luck today?" Bess questioned.

"None at all," Joanne answered with a sigh. She came over to the car and stood leaning against the door. "I tried half a dozen places, but I couldn't land a thing. I'll just have to try again tomorrow."

In the face of such spirit on Joanne's part, the girls could do nothing but encourage her, though secretly they feared she would have no better luck the next day.

"How about coming for a short ride?" Nancy invited.

"I'd love it," Joanne accepted eagerly. "It's so hot and stuffy in my room-" She hesitated, then added, "Of course, I guess it is everywhere these days!"

Nancy took a road that led out of the city and soon they were driving past cultivated fields of corn and wheat. Gradually, Joanne became more cheerful.

"It's so good to be out in the country again!" she declared, gazing wistfully toward a farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills. "That place looks something like Red Gate Farm, only not half so attractive. I wish you all could visit me there sometime!"

"So do we!" Nancy said enthusiastically. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to hike over hills and breathe in the fresh clean air?"

"I've always wanted to spend a vacation on a farm," Bess declared longingly. "Just imagine having cream an inch thick!"

"Just what you need for reducing!" her cousin teased her.

"You wouldn't have to worry about that" Joanne smiled. "We keep only one cow."

When the girls later left Joanne at the door of her boardinghouse, they had the satisfaction of knowing she was in a more cheerful frame of mind.