salind
secluded," her son wrote. "I want her to have companions of her own age,
and to learn to know and love the old town as I loved it. She has lived
too much with Louis and me and story books; it is time she was waking up."

This explains why the Roberts children and the Partons received special
invitations to call on Rosalind. Friendship began to seem to her a very
different place as her acquaintance with it grew and neighborly relations
were established with Maurice and Katherine. The gap in the hedge became a
daily meeting-place, and grew slowly, but steadily, wider.

A few days after the tea party, Katherine asked Rosalind to go out to the
creek with her, and on the way they stopped for Belle. While she went to
find her hat, Rosalind made the acquaintance of the colonel and several
dogs. Then the three strolled along the wide street, under the shade of
tall maples, past pleasant gardens and inviting houses, until the street
turned into a country road, and before them was Red Hill and the little
bridge over Friendly Creek at its foot.

Under the bridge the water rippled and splashed over the stones, and out
of sight, back somewhere among the trees, it could be heard rushing over a
dam. The children seated themselves on a bit of pebbly beach.

"How nice to be near the real country!" Rosalind exclaimed. "At home we
are near the park, but that is not the real country. We have to go miles
to get there."

"But there are such lovely stores and things in the city," said Katherine.

"Still, you can't go about by yourself, as you can here," Rosalind
answered; and Belle added, "I like to go to the city for a little while,
but I'd rather live in Friendship, where the houses aren't so close
together."

As they sat there, throwing stones in the water and writing in the sand,
Rosalind heard a great deal about school, which would close next
week,--how the girls had rushed to the window to see her and had lost
their recess, and how Belle had been sent to the office, besides, for
making chalk dishes. It was all very amusing, but she could not understand
why the girls wanted to see her.

"Well, you know they are all interested in your house, and in Miss
Genevieve; and then everybody was surprised at your coming to visit your
grandmother."

"I can't see why," Rosalind said, opening her eyes.

"Oh, well--because you never had before, you know." Belle's manner was
hesitating, as if she felt conscious of being on dangerous g