s undertaking too much for her strength.

But Miss Brown was quite sure of herself.

"If you knew how like spring sunshine they are in my sober life, you
would see that it can only be a benefit to me," she said.

"Of course _I_ think they are dear children, but I may be partial,"
their aunt replied, smiling.

"I discovered one secret of their attractiveness some time ago--they
are fortunate children," and Miss Brown looked admiringly into the
sweet face before her.

Promptly at three on Saturday afternoon the invited guests appeared.
They were a little shy and silent at first after Bess introduced them
to their hostess, but this wore off very quickly at the sight of five
pairs of needles with the knitting already begun in bright worsteds.

Dora, who had learned to knit in Germany, was made assistant teacher,
and for an hour they worked away diligently.

Then Miss Brown said they had done very well for beginners, and that
it was time to stop and decide upon a name for their club.

The work was hardly put away when Nannie, the new maid, came in,
bringing some of Mary's delicious cakes, and chocolate which was
served in the oddest little cups brought by Miss Brown's grandfather
from India when she was a child. Chocolate had never before tasted so
good.

"Did you have tea parties with them when you were a little girl, and
never break any of them?" Constance asked with wide-open eyes, for she
had broken half a dozen tea-sets in her short lifetime.

"You did not think _then_ that when you were grown up you would give
some other children chocolate in these cups, did you?" said Dora.

"If we should keep our things I wonder if they would be as funny and
interesting to us when we are grown up?" Bess fingered one of the cups
admiringly as she spoke.

"I never feel as if I'd care for things when I am old," said Elsie.

"I can remember when I used to feel so too, but it is a great mistake.
Now I enjoy things which I have had for a long time, more than I do
new ones. When I use my tea-set I always think of the days when my
cousin Margaret and I used to play together."

"Couldn't you tell us about it, Miss Brown?--about your cousin and
when you were a little girl?" asked Louise.

"Please, if it is not too much trouble," added Bess.

They all looked so eager she could not refuse.

"There is really not much to tell," she said. "Thirty years ago little
girls were not very different from those I see now, though we had