"Girls, in about ten minutes you're going to have the surprise of your lives," cried Nancy Brown, joining a group of her friends at the High School gate. "What is it, Nancy? Do tell us, please," cried half a dozen voices at once. "No, you must wait," answered Nancy. "If I told you what it was, I wouldn't enjoy seeing your faces when the thing happened." "Nancy, you have always got some mystery on foot," put in her most intimate friend, Elinor Butler. "Is this one animal, vegetable, or mineral?" "Fine or superfine?" "Can it speak?" "Is it as large as a house?" "Don't all talk at once," exclaimed Nancy. "I'll tell you this much. It's animal and it's superfine. And"-she wrinkled her brows-"and it's mineral, too, I suppose." "Superfine? At least it's a woman, then?" cried all the girls in a chorus. "Yes," laughed Nancy, who loved nothing better than to excite the curiosity of her friends to the utmost and then launch a genuine sensation into their midst. "Does the superfine animal wear the mineral?" demanded Elinor. "No, she doesn't wear it. She's in it." "In it? How strange," exclaimed another girl. "Perhaps it's a lady oyster in her shell."