by. She no longer lay limp and half unconscious, but
awoke from sleep, laughing and crowing, to stretch and roll and kick
like any healthy baby. She took many precious moments of Olga's time,
but Olga did not grudge them. In that one day of fear and dread, the
baby had established herself once for all in the girl's heart. If things
could only go on as they were--if Sonia would earn her own clothes even,
and be content to stay on and leave the baby to her care, Olga felt that
she could be quite happy. But she had her misgivings in regard to Sonia.
There was about her at times an air of mystery and of suppressed
excitement that puzzled her sister. She spent many evenings out--with
friends, she said, but she never told who the friends were. Still Olga
was happy. Her work, her baby (she thought of it always now as hers),
and the Camp Fire friends--these filled her days, and she put aside
resolutely her misgivings in regard to her sister, worked doubly hard to
pay the extra bills, and endured without complaint the discomfort of her
crowded rooms where Sonia claimed and kept the most and best of
everything. There was a cheery old lady in the room below--an old lady
who dearly loved to get hold of a baby, and with her Olga left her
little niece on Camp Fire nights, and when she went to market or to the
school. The girls began to drop in again evenings, now that Sonia was so
seldom there, and Olga welcomed them with shining eyes. The baby soon
had all the girls at her feet. They called her "The Camp Fire Baby" and
would have adopted her forthwith, but Olga would not agree to that.

"You can play with her and love her as much as you like, but she's my
very own," she told them.

But with her delight in the child was always mingled a haunting fear
that Sonia would some day snatch her up and disappear with her as
suddenly as she had come.

It was in December that the blow fell. Sonia had not come back to
supper, and Olga left the baby with old Mrs. Morris, and set off with
Lizette for the Camp Fire meeting. It was a delightful meeting, and Olga
enjoyed every minute of it, and the walk home with Elizabeth afterwards,
while Sadie followed with Lizette.

"Come down soon and see my baby--and me," she said, as Elizabeth and
Sadie turned off at their own corner, and she went on with Lizette.

Before she could knock at Mrs. Morris's door, it was opened by the old
lady. "I've been watching for you----" she began, and instantly Olga
r