admired the ones I
have, and would like to buy rugs for the Colonial rooms they are
furnishing. Sadie, can you crochet?"

"Oh, yes. I can do the plain stitch very well."

"That is all that will be necessary. You will become very much
interested in inventing new designs, it is very fascinating work, and
it will be more remunerative than sewing carpet rags. Aunt Sarah will
send you more carpet rags if you require them, and should you wish
dull colors of blue or pink, a small package of dye will transform
white or light-colored rags into any desired shade, to match the
furnishings of different rooms. I think the crocheted rugs much
prettier than the braided ones, which are so popular in the 'Nutting'
pictures, and the same pretty shades may be used when rugs are
crocheted."

When Farmer Landis came for the girls, he found them too busily
engaged talking to hear his knock at the door. During the drive home
Mary could think and talk of nothing but Sadie Singmaster, and the
rugs she had promised to teach her to make at an early day. Elizabeth,
scarcely less enthusiastic, said: "I've a lot of old things I'll give
her to cut up for carpet rags."

Reaching home, Mary could scarcely wait an opportunity to tell Aunt
Sarah all her plans for Sadie's betterment. When she finally did tell
her Aunt, she smiled and said: "Mary, I'm not surprised. You are
always planning to do a kind act for some one. You remind me of the
lines, 'If I Can Live,' by Helen Hunt Jackson." And she repeated the
following for Mary:

IF I CAN LIVE.

If I can live
To make some pale face brighter and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e'en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by;

If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious strain,
My life, though bare,
Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.

The purest joy,
Most near to heaven, far from earth's alloy,
Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine;
And 'twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me, she did her best for one of Thine.

CHAPTER XVI.

OLD PARLOR MADE BEAUTIFUL (MODERNIZED).

When John Landis came into possession of "Clear Spring" Farm, where
his mother had lived during her lifetime, she having inherited it from
her fathe