s all right having Harriet and Constantia in the house, though.
And not at all like what Elsie had feared. They were really very good
to mother. And Harriet being always merry, and Constantia all the time
wanting things done for her, it was good for mother, and took her mind
more off her trouble.

Besides, you can't really keep on being angry with a pair of pretty
girls about a house. They brighten things wonderfully. The very sight
of them does, and you can't help it. And though both of them together
were not worth an Elsie, nor half so pretty, yet they laughed more, and
being town girls, of course they had any amount of nice dresses, pretty
blouses, belts for the waist, and lace for their necks; while Elsie had
just a white turn-over collar like a boy, and a broad brown leather
belt for her blue serge dress. I gave her that belt, and she always
wore blue serge, because she said that, with good brushing, she could
make a not Sunday dress look almost like a Sunday one.

Well, as I say, of course all the Caws that ever were could never be
like Elsie. But still it is a wonder and a marvel to me to think how
much I liked having them in the house. Harriet was as merry as a grig
whatever that may be; they don't live in our parts--and pretty, too,
with a piquant expression that was never twice the same. She always
looked as if she were going to cheek you. And that interested you,
because, not being a boy, it put you in a fret to know how she was
going to set about it this time. If she had been a boy, she would have
got pounded--sound and frequent.

And then Constantia! She was more "keepsake" girl than ever, and
slopped about all over our plain furniture like the "window-sill" girl,
and the "Romney" girl, and the "chin-on-elbows" girl--that was
Cinderella. But Constantia was always dressed to the nines--no holes
in her dress, and not a very big one even where her waist came through.
Oh, she was a Miss Flop from Floptown if you like! But lovely, I tell
you! How everybody stared, as if they had never seen a girl with curls
and big eyes that looked as if they were going to cry! They called
them "dewy"--dewy, indeed! She kept an onion in her handkerchief on
purpose. Once it fell out, and rolled right under the sofa. I nailed
it, and in a minute had "dewy" eyes, too--right before her nose. There
were gentlemen calling, too--your lawyer fellows with cuffs and
dickeys! She said I was a horrid beast, but Harrie