t shook inside; little, shining imps danced in them,
wanting to come out. Yes, I saw them and--"

"And I was so glad of the chance to giggle out loud when you said
something that wasn't at all funny but gave us a chance to pretend it
was. I could have screamed!"

"After all, it wasn't near so fine as our palace, with its red room and
its green room and its blue room with everything to match."

"But that library was beautiful. You couldn't help but see lovely
things if you were writing there!"

"Alene is such a dear little thing! She never gave a thought to her
home being so much finer than ours; she only thought of giving us a
good time!" said Laura.

"She's no snob! She thinks people are what they are in themselves!"

"And thoughts are the most precious things--that's the reason she
wanted to give you the pleasure of seeing His Gorgeous Lordship from
the tower window!"

For a moment Ivy was silent; her gaze was far away; again she was
looking from that little narrow window so close to the clouds.

"Do you know, Lol, if I owned the Big House I'd live in the tower when
I wasn't in the library. But it wasn't me in particular, Lol, that
Alene wanted. To her I'm only a lesser planet when you're near--it's
hearts that count!"

"Yes, she's so good-hearted that you forget her pretty clothes and rich
relations, and come to lock on her as just a little girl like the
others!" Ivy smiled indulgently as Laura applied her remarks to Alene,
and the unconscious Laura continued, "At first when I proposed that she
should join the Happy-Go-Luckys, it was just because she looked so
lonely with only the dog to play with, in that great house with its
acres of grounds; and when she said her Uncle called her 'Peggy-Alone',
I could see the tears back of her smile and it came to me, 'what if
Nettie or Lois were to be left all alone?' They're so used to tagging
after me all their lives, you know, and so I just asked her in, though
I was dreadfully afraid you would all be against it."

"And so we were! Just because we knew she was rich and might be in the
way when we wanted some fun, or would look down on us because we're
poor. That," glancing at her crutches, "makes some people mild and
sweet-tempered, they say, but it only makes me hatefuller and selfisher
every day! Lol, I'm going to tell you something so you'll see what a
selfish thing I am. I swallowed that gumdrop on purpose so I wouldn't
have to vote! I didn't hav