was in great spirits at the prospect
of getting up, for the splints were off, and he hoped to be promoted to
crutches very soon.

"_I_ shall keep my Speller by me and take a look at it every day, for
that is what I'm most backward in. But I intend to devote myself to you,
Jack, and be real kind and useful. I've made a plan to do it, and I
mean to carry it out, any way," answered Jill, who had begun to be a
missionary, and felt that this was a field of labor where she could
distinguish herself.

"Here's a home mission all ready for you, and you can be paying your
debts beside doing yourself good," Mrs. Pecq said to her in private,
having found plenty to do herself.

Now Jill made one great mistake at the outset--she forgot that she was
the one to be converted to good manners and gentleness, and devoted
her efforts to looking after Jack, finding it much easier to cure other
people's faults than her own. Jack was a most engaging heathen, and
needed very little instruction; therefore Jill thought her task would
be an easy one. But three or four weeks of petting and play had rather
demoralized both children, so Jill's Speller, though tucked under the
sofa pillow every day, was seldom looked at, and Jack shirked his Latin
shamefully. Both read all the story-books they could get, held daily
levees in the Bird Room, and all their spare minutes were spent in
teaching Snowdrop, the great Angora cat, to bring the ball when they
dropped it in their game. So Saturday came, and both were rather the
worse for so much idleness, since daily duties and studies are the
wholesome bread which feeds the mind better than the dyspeptic plum-cake
of sensational reading, or the unsubstantial _bon-bons_ of frivolous
amusement.

It was a stormy day, so they had few callers, and devoted themselves to
arranging the album; for these books were all the rage just then, and
boys met to compare, discuss, buy, sell, and "swap" stamps with as much
interest as men on 'Change gamble in stocks. Jack had a nice little
collection, and had been saving up pocket-money to buy a book in which
to preserve his treasures. Now, thanks to Jill's timely suggestion,
Frank had given him a fine one, and several friends had contributed a
number of rare stamps to grace the large, inviting pages. Jill wielded
the gum-brush and fitted on the little flaps, as her fingers were
skilful at this nice work, and Jack put each stamp in its proper place
with great rustling of leav