h grave interest. "What's the matter with this--aren't you sure
how it should be cut?"

Rosemary shook her head hopelessly.

"I'm afraid to cut it before I know and I've tried it every way I
can think of," she confessed.

"Well, if this is wrong, I'll buy you some more goods to-morrow,"
promised the doctor, twitching the pattern to his liking.

He took up the scissors and cut around the outline with what seemed
to Rosemary, reckless abandon. But when he had finished and she took
up the two pieces, they fitted together like parts of a picture
puzzle.

"It's right!" she cried in delight. "Hugh, you darling, it's all
right! And I can baste it to-night and sew it on the machine
to-morrow and put the ribbon on by hand. Won't Mother love it!"

"No more sewing to-night," said her brother firmly. "Dressmakers
always make mistakes when they're tired. Come down and eat your
dinner now, and then put this truck away till after school to-morrow
afternoon."

Rosemary followed him downstairs meekly, though her fingers itched
to get at the basting. Sarah looked up at them in surprise as they
entered the dining-room.

"I thought Rosemary was going to be cross!" she said frankly.

"You were mistaken," retorted Doctor Hugh, smiling so infectiously
at Rosemary that she could do no less than twinkle back at him.

CHAPTER XXI

MR. JORDAN LEARNS SOMETHING

The kimona was finished without further mishap and packed away in
the Christmas box.

"And no one was more surprised than I when the thing proved to be
cut right," Doctor Hugh confided to Winnie. "I never looked at a
pattern before, but I took a chance. I could see Rosemary was just
on the edge of 'nerves' and I figured out that if I did make a mess
of it, she might not find it out till the next day, and by that time
she might be able to see the humor in the situation."

"You're a wise lad, Hughie, and I'm proud of you," said Winnie
fondly. She had guessed something of the cost of the fur lined coat
that the doctor had proudly displayed as his Christmas gift for the
little mother, now well enough to take short tramps through the pine
woods daily. Winnie did not know that a set of sorely needed medical
books had gone into the coat, but she suspected something of the
kind.

The box was packed and sent and the Willis family settled down to
the first Christmas they had known without the gentle spirit who had
tirelessly planned for every holiday. But they had the dea