t come
from the West--a newly made orphan and with the loss of her little
sister a fresh wound in her poor heart. So she had forgotten the
strawberry farmer, and most of the other people in the old neighborhood
where her father had lived before going West.

Dot Kenway was quite unconscious of having involuntarily inflicted a
wound in Mrs. Eland's mind and heart that she was doomed not to recover
from for long weeks. As the sisters bade the matron good-bye, and
started for the old Corner House, just as dusk was falling, Tess felt
that her friend, Mrs. Eland, was really much sadder than she had been
when they had begun their call.

Tess, however, could not understand the reason for this.

CHAPTER XIII

NEALE SUFFERS A SHORTENING PROCESS

Naturally, Neale O'Neil stopped at the old Corner House on his way home
with his new suit of clothes, to display them to Agnes and the others.
In spite of Ruth's pronounced distaste for boys, she could not help
having a secret interest in Neale O'Neil, and Agnes and Mrs. MacCall
were not the only inmates of the Stower mansion that wanted to see the
new suit on the boy, to be sure, before he appeared at church in it the
next Sunday, that it fitted him properly.

"There!" exclaimed the housekeeper, the moment Neale came back from the
bathroom where he had made the change, and she saw how the gray suit
looked. "I never knew that Merriefield, the clothier, to sell a suit but
what either the coat was too big, the vest too long, or the pants out o'
kilter in some way. Look at them pants!" she added, almost tragically.

"Wha--what's the matter with them?" queried Neale, somewhat excited, and
trying to see behind him. He was quite an acrobat, but he could not look
down his spinal column. "Are they torn?"

"Tore? No! Only tore off a mile too long," snorted Mrs. MacCall.

"I declare, Neale," chuckled Agnes, "they are awfully long. They drag at
the heel."

"And I've got 'em pulled up now till I feel as though I was going to be
cut in two," complained the boy.

"Made for a man--made for a man," sniffed Aunt Sarah, who chanced to be
in the sitting room. She did not often take any interest in Neale
O'Neil--or appear to, at least. But she eyed the too long trousers
malevolently. "Ought to be cut off two inches."

"Yes; a good two inches," agreed Mrs. MacCall.

"Leave the pants here, Neale, and some of us will get time to shorten
them for you before next Sunday. You won't want to