all the daughters of Dorfield; and then of being poor and bereft,
pitied by all who had formerly envied her. Soon after the death of her
grandfather, Colonel Hathaway, had come the news of her husband's
shipwreck. Hope of Danny Dexter's survival was finally abandoned by his
sorrowing little wife and his many friends. Colonel Hathaway's
comfortable fortune had mysteriously disappeared and Mary Louise faced
a future of poverty. With native pluck she arose to the occasion.
In spite of her sad heart she showed a cheerful spirit. Joining
forces with Josie O'Gorman and Elizabeth Wright in the quaint
Higgledy-Piggledy Shop, she opened a millinery department and was soon
swamped with orders for smart hats by the elite of Dorfield and
old-fashioned bonnets for the ancient ladies who refused to wear hats.
When Danny came back, not having gone to a watery grave after all, and
the lost fortune was found, Mary Louise again stood the test of being
rich and beloved.

"Nothing can spoil our Mary Louise," Josie O'Gorman declared, and Irene
Macfarlane smiled from her wheel chair.

"That is because she is pure gold, through and through," said the lame
girl as she deftly plied her needle in the cobwebby lace collar she was
mending.

"We certainly shall miss her here at the Higgledy-Piggledy," put in
Elizabeth Wright. "It doesn't seem like the same place with Mary Louise
gone. I wonder what the old ladies who still wear bonnets will do now.
There is no other milliner in Dorfield who can fashion an old-time
bonnet like our Mary Louise. She did them as though she loved them and
the old ladies for whom they were intended."

"Well, every old woman in town has had Mary Louise make her a bonnet
'exactly like Jane's and Susan's and Martha's and Matilda's'," laughed
Josie, "and they don't change their bonnets oftener than every seven
years, so we needn't worry about them just yet. Speaking of angels!
Here she is!"

Mary Louise literally danced into the shop. Ever since Danny returned
her feet seemed to have wings.

"I didn't know how miserable I had been until I had my present
happiness with which to compare my former sorrow," she had told Josie
O'Gorman shortly after Danny got back.

"You were too busy to be altogether unhappy," spake the wise Josie.
"Being poor enough to have to make one's living is not so bad as it is
cracked up to be. It was certainly a blessing in your case."

As we have said, Mary Louise danced into the shop. Then s