e Rosalie could never
have been any nicer than you are, and I don't believe Rosslyn was nicer
than Jerome, though Jerome does tease me dreadfully sometimes. He
doesn't mean to, and he always tells me he is sorry. I like the name
Jerome, but Mrs. McKittrick says she hates it, so it would never do to
suggest that."

"Don't they use last names sometimes for first names? Mrs. McKittrick
thinks Dr. Vane is splendid. I heard her tell mamma so. He saved the
baby when it was so terribly sick and the other doctor said it could not
get well."

"Maybe it would do for part of the name, though I wouldn't want to call
him Vane every day. That would sound as if he was a peacock. See him
pull that flower to pieces just as if he was trying to study how it is
put together. Maybe he will grow up to be a big botany man. I would like
to be one myself if I didn't intend to keep house for Tom. Oh, the baby
has started for the river!"

Both girls sprang up and gave chase and Carrie straightway forgot all
about the name problem, but Tabitha's busy brain puzzled over it all
that happy day, even while she romped and played with her mates in
lively games of "Farmer in the Dell," "Old Mother Witch," "Drop the
Handkerchief," and all the other childhood favorites. Once she almost
forgot it. They were playing "Blind Man's Buff," when Jerome, who was
"it," succeeded in catching her by her hair after an animated scrimmage.
Her braid promptly gave away her identity, for no other girl in school
possessed such long tresses; and Jerome was elated at having so readily
discovered who his prisoner was, all the more so because this was the
first time Tabitha had been caught; so he teasingly cried, "Aha, this is
Miss Me-a-ow!"

How the children shouted, and for a moment Tabitha's face was crimson
with passion and she lifted a doubled-up fist threateningly; but before
the expected blow fell, Tabitha's lips curved suddenly into a smile, her
arm dropped to her side, and she gayly answered, "Yes, Mr.
Ki-yip-ki-yi-yi, put on my blinders."

Only Miss Brooks of the grown people had witnessed the child's struggle,
and as they were sitting down to the generous lunch spread under the
cottonwoods, she drew the flushed face down beside her and said very
softly, "That was well done, dear. I am proud of you."

"You needn't be," was the candid reply. "I was all ready to scratch for
all I was worth when I saw the baby and I knew I wasn't a fit person to
name such a litt