d Anne timidly.

"Would you like me to?"

"Oh, indeed, yes. They are delightful."

A pleased expression came into Miss Patty's face.

"I think a great deal of those dogs," she said proudly. "They are over
a hundred years old, and they have sat on either side of this fireplace
ever since my brother Aaron brought them from London fifty years ago.
Spofford Avenue was called after my brother Aaron."

"A fine man he was," said Miss Maria, speaking for the first time. "Ah,
you don't see the like of him nowadays."

"He was a good uncle to you, Maria," said Miss Patty, with evident
emotion. "You do well to remember him."

"I shall always remember him," said Miss Maria solemnly. "I can see him,
this minute, standing there before that fire, with his hands under his
coat-tails, beaming on us."

Miss Maria took out her handkerchief and wiped her eyes; but Miss Patty
came resolutely back from the regions of sentiment to those of business.

"I shall leave the dogs where they are, if you will promise to be very
careful of them," she said. "Their names are Gog and Magog. Gog looks
to the right and Magog to the left. And there's just one thing more. You
don't object, I hope, to this house being called Patty's Place?"

"No, indeed. We think that is one of the nicest things about it."

"You have sense, I see," said Miss Patty in a tone of great
satisfaction. "Would you believe it? All the people who came here to
rent the house wanted to know if they couldn't take the name off the
gate during their occupation of it. I told them roundly that the name
went with the house. This has been Patty's Place ever since my brother
Aaron left it to me in his will, and Patty's Place it shall remain until
I die and Maria dies. After that happens the next possessor can call it
any fool name he likes," concluded Miss Patty, much as she might have
said, "After that--the deluge." "And now, wouldn't you like to go over
the house and see it all before we consider the bargain made?"

Further exploration still further delighted the girls. Besides the
big living-room, there was a kitchen and a small bedroom downstairs.
Upstairs were three rooms, one large and two small. Anne took an
especial fancy to one of the small ones, looking out into the big
pines, and hoped it would be hers. It was papered in pale blue and had
a little, old-timey toilet table with sconces for candles. There was a
diamond-paned window with a seat under the blue muslin frills th