to her mother, who was absorbed in her garden and her
books, nor to her father, who was supposed to be always "thinking
stories."

So Betty ran to school with her clean bonnet tucked under her arm, after
promising that she would "try to bring the other one home with her."

Her mind was now at rest upon her future "career." She had quite
determined to be a second Madam S---- with this sole difference in their
lives--Madam S---- faced the world at _her_ street corner at the age of
eight, and Betty was not beginning till she was "twelve and a bit."

Still, she had a few worries.

She was worried over John--lest he should have gone and left her; and
she was worried over the great question, "What song to sing?" as many
singers have been before.

She had thought of "God save the Queen," but the words did not fulfil
all requirements, while "Please give me a penny, sir"--that song she had
found among a heap of yellow old ones with her mother's name--maiden
name, Dorothea Carew--upon them, seemed to have been written just for
the occasion. The only pity was, that whereas Betty knew "God Save the
Queen" perfectly, "Please give me a penny, sir" was almost a stranger to
her.

She had learnt a verse of it on Saturday night when she ought to have
been doing her arithmetic; and on Sunday evening she had coaxed her
mother to the piano, and begged her to sing "_just_ this one song,
_please_." Her mother sang very prettily--like Dot--and she had thrown a
good deal of pathos into the old song, so that Betty's ambition was
fired, and she had _almost_ decided upon the song straightaway.

This morning she arrived at school flushed and hot, before either Cyril
or Nancy, and she began at once to explore the playground for John Brown
the artist. Two little lines of boys and girls were playing a sober game
of French and English away under the gum trees, and Betty ran her eyes
along the lines--but no John Brown was there.

Two boys were skirmishing just behind the cloak-room, but neither of
them was John Brown. Five were playing "leap frog," but John Brown was
not there. One sat on the doorstep learning a lesson, but that was only
Artie Jones.

Then a motley crowd of boys and girls came trailing in at the gate, and
the bell began to ring.

Betty drew into the shadow of the new wing, the "Babies' Wing," and
scanned the new arrivals eagerly.

Fat Nellie Underwood gave her a bunch of jonquils and fell into line to
march into the schoo