er,' she calls him! Stuff! He's no
more our cousin than I'm your uncle; and he's to own the Hall, when it
ought to be ours. I should think his conscience would wear a hole right
through him, and if she brings that picture of his head home with her,
I'll jab the carving-fork into it, sure's the world!"

"It would make you feel better, I've no doubt," remarked Kittie, who sat
by the window stitching ruffles, with a lady-like air, while a great
bouquet ornamented the sill, shedding its fragrance through the room; it
having been brought that morning by the polite colored man from
Raymond's, with a tiny, three-cornered card, fastened to a rose-bud, and
reading:

"FOR MISS KITTIE, FROM PANSY,"

in crazy-looking capitals.

"Well, I don't see how she can," said Kat, "be so polite to a fellow who
is paddling about in our canoe, while we flounder in the water, and get
along the best we can. I think it's too mean."

"But it's not his fault," remonstrated Bea. "Uncle Ridley has a right to
leave his money and house where he pleases; and I'm sure I can't see
what right we have to fuss, especially after all he's done for us."

"We have too much to be thankful for to make complaints of any kind,"
said Mrs. Dering, looking out of the window, as the gate was heard to
slam. "There comes a boy! You may go to the door, Kat, as you don't
appear to be doing anything."

Kat lifted herself from the floor with a yawn, and strolled lazily out
to the door, but came back in a moment, with quicker steps, and less
color in her face.

"It's a despatch," she said, holding out the envelope that always bears
alarm in its very face; and Mrs. Dering took it quickly, while the girls
hung round her chair in anxiety. Was Olive or Jean sick? Neither. The
paper unfolded, briefly read:

"I will be home on Wednesday with Ernestine. She is quite
ill. Meet the train with an easy carriage and pillows, and
with Dr. B.

"OLIVE."

For a moment not a sound broke the stillness, then Mrs. Dering dropped
the paper, and hid her face in her hands, and the girls knew that her
first thought was to return thanks for this answer to her long, yearning
prayers. A moment after, it was as though a whirlwind had struck the
peaceful room; no one seemed to know, in the excitement that possessed
them, just what it was they wanted to say or do, and between the joy and
anxiety that the news occasioned, they all laughed and cried
alternately.

"To-m