was you," said the boy eagerly as
they left the station. "You look a little like our mother did. She told
us lots about you, and so did the Fat Woman."

"The fat woman," exclaimed Miss Hetty somewhat in surprise. "Who is
she?"

"She looked after us," replied Pearl in a voice so sweet that in spite
of her aversion to her duty Miss Hetty's heart began to warm to her
unwelcome charges. "Even while mother was living she cared for us, and
she told us all we know. She got me all my clothes. She was so jolly and
nice, and so was Mr. Barleydon, and I didn't want to leave the circus, I
didn't, but Periwinkle did."

"Why did Periwinkle want to leave," asked Miss Hetty, now becoming much
interested, although she did purse up her lips when she spoke the
obnoxious name. Periwinkle answered for himself: "I didn't like the
trapezes, nor the everlasting traveling. I wanted to be in a home like
mother told us about and go to school. And besides that, I didn't want
Pearl to be like the spangled circus ladies, even if some of them were
lovely and the Fat Woman perfectly grand; so was one of the clowns. You
can't imagine, Aunt Hetty, what a noble, charitable fellow Jerry was. I
disliked to leave them. But how I hated the snake-charmer; you can't
imagine, Auntie."

Aunt Hetty shivered at the mere mention of a snake-charmer. She could
easily sympathize with Periwinkle in his aversion for her.

"You use pretty big words for a boy, Periwinkle," was, however, all that
she said.

"Yes, the Fat Woman said she couldn't account for them, but she taught
us, and she is a very brilliant woman. Little Pearl can read splendid.
You can't imagine, Aunt Hetty."

"You said that the Fat Woman told you about me," hinted Miss Hetty,
forgetting that she didn't wish to know anything about these worldly
people.

"O yes," replied Pearl, also desirous of furnishing her aunt with some
more information concerning her friend, the Fat Woman. "She said as you
would be different from the ladies we were used to, but you'd be our
relation and mean all for our good, and we was to put up with you as
you'd put up with us, and to respect you and love you like we did her.
But you won't mind just at first, will you, if we can't love you quite
so much as her, 'cause the Fat Woman was very dear to me and
Periwinkle."

A sudden something gushed up in the heart of Miss Maise, the something
that makes the Fat Woman and the clown and all of us kin, but it died
down as qu