trade if Kitty will let me off from mine."

"No, _sir!_" answered Kitty. "A trade's a trade. I want that paper boy
doll."

"But it's your regular turn," coaxed Elise, "and I'd much rather go down
to the depot to meet the girls than go riding."

"So would I," said Kitty, spurring the procession of ants to faster speed
with her slipper toe. Then she sat up and considered the matter a moment.

"Oh, well," she said, presently, "I don't care, after all. If it will
oblige you any I'll let you off, and take the pony myself."

"Oh, thank you, sister," cried Elise.

"They'll only be at the depot a few minutes," continued the wily Kitty.
"So I'll drive down to meet them in style in the cart, and then I'll go up
to Locust with them, beside the carriage, and hear all about the trip
first of anybody."

"I wish I'd thought of that," said Elise, a shade of disappointment in her
big dark eyes.

"I'll tell you," proposed Allison, enthusiastically, "We'll _all_ go down
in the pony-cart to meet them together. That would be the nicest way to
do."

"Oh!" was Kitty's cool reply, "I had thought of going by for Katy or
Corinne." Then, seeing the disappointment in the faces opposite, she
added, "But maybe I might change my mind. Have you got anything to trade
for a chance to go?"

This transfer of possessions which they carried on was like a continuous
game, of which they never tired, because of its endless variety. It was a
source of great amusement to the older members of the family.

"It is a mystery to me," said Miss Allison, "how they manage to keep track
of their property, and remember who is the owner. I have known a doll or a
dish to change hands half a dozen times in the course of a forenoon."

Elise promptly offered the paper boy doll again, which was promptly
accepted. Allison had nothing to offer which Kitty considered equivalent
to a seat in the cart, but by a roundabout transfer the trade was finally
made. Allison gave Elise the amount of purple and yellow paint she needed
for the Princess Pansy's ball gown, in return for which Elise gave her a
piece of spangled gauze which Kitty had long had an eye upon. Allison in
turn handed the gauze to Kitty for her right to a seat in the pony-cart,
and the affair was thus happily settled to the satisfaction of all
parties.

"It _isn't_ that we are selfish with each other," Allison had retorted,
indignantly, one day when Corinne remarked that she didn't see how sisters
who lov