love had not quite died out of
her breast.

"Mother said I might come over and stay an hour and a half," said
Mehitable.

Hannah Maria smiled hospitably. "I'm keepin' house," said she. "Mother's
gone to Lawrence."

Mehitable took her doll out of the carriage with a motherly air, and
sat down on the door-step with it in her lap.

"How much longer you goin' to play with dolls?" inquired Hannah Maria.

"I don't know," replied Mehitable, with a little shamed droop of her
eyelids.

"You can't when you get a little bigger, anyhow. Is that a new dress
she's got on?"

"Yes; Aunt Susy made it out of a piece of her blue silk."

"It's handsome, isn't it? Let me take her a minute." Hannah Maria took
the doll and cuddled it up against her shoulder as she had used to do
with her own. She examined the blue silk dress. "My doll had a real
handsome plaid silk one," said she, and she spoke as if the doll were
dead. She sighed.

"Have you given her away?" inquired Mehitable, in a solemn tone.

"No; she's packed away. I'm too old to play with her, you know. Mother
said I had other things to 'tend to. Dolls are well 'nough for little
girls like you. Here, you'd better take her; I've got to finish my
sewin'."

Hannah Maria handed back the doll with a resolute air, but she handed
her back tenderly; then she sewed until she reached the pin. Mehitable
rocked her doll, and watched.

When Hannah Maria reached the pin she jumped up. "I'm comin' back in a
minute," said she, and disappeared in the house. Presently Mehitable
heard the dishes rattle.

"She's gone after a cooky," she thought. Cookies were her usual
luncheon.

But Hannah Maria came back with a long slice of one-egg cake with
blueberries in it. She broke it into halves, and gave the larger one to
Mehitable. "There," said she, "I'd give you more, but mother didn't tell
me I could cut more'n one slice."

Mehitable ate her cake appreciatively; once in a while she slyly fed her
doll with a bit.

Hannah Maria took bites of hers between the stitches; she had almost
finished the over-and-over seams.

Presently she rose and shook out the sheet with a triumphant air.
"There," said she, "it's done."

"Did you sew all that this afternoon?" asked Mehitable, in an awed tone.

"My! yes. It isn't so very much to do."

Hannah Maria laid the sheet down in a heap on the entry floor; then she
looked at Mehitable. "Now, I've nothin' more to do," said she. "S'pose
we go to walk