nt Dot to
go into town with a message for Miss Florence. And Meg must practice
on the piano half an hour at least. This afternoon we're going to take
Aunt Polly driving. After she goes home there will be plenty for all
of us to do to get ready."

Miss Florence Davis was the dressmaker who often came to the house to
make clothes for the Blossom children, and Dot set off presently for
her house, carrying a note to her. Miss Florence had no telephone. She
said she wasn't home long enough to answer it. But she always left a
slip of paper pinned to her door to tell people at whose house she was
sewing, and her customers were used to going about the town till they
found her.

"She says she can come," reported Dot when she returned from her
errand. "She can give you four days, Mother. Where are the boys?"

Mother Blossom looked at her small daughter and sighed.

"I thought you knew Sam painted the fence last night," she said
mildly.

"I did, but I forgot," explained Dot, trying to fold over a pleat so
that the vivid streaks of green paint would not show. "I guess I kind
of brushed up against it, Mother."

Usually when Aunt Polly went home the four little Blossoms were
disconsolate, but the next morning they saw her to the station quite
cheerfully. Were they not going to Brookside themselves exactly one
week from that day?

"Now we must fly around and get ready," announced Bobby, when they
returned to the house. Bobby had a great trick of remembering speeches
he had heard older folk make.

"Indeed then and you must," agreed Norah, who was sweeping the porch.
"Your mother wants Dot in the sewing room. Miss Florence is ready to
try on. And, Bobby, it's sorry I am, but we're out of soap."

It was rather a long walk to the grocery store, and Bobby didn't think
that going for soap promised one bit of excitement. Neither did Meg
want to practice the piano scales that one day were to make her a good
musician. Norah knew something of what they were thinking.

"You'll both be helping your mother to get ready to go," she said
earnestly and kindly. "I've got extra washing to do, for all your
clothes must be clean. And if Meg's going to stop learning music every
time a new plan comes up, she'll grow up to be terrible ignorant of
lots of things."

"All right, I'm going," said Bobby quickly. "An' you'll be through by
the time I get back, Meg. Then I guess we can pack the toys."

Twaddles, left alone, wandered up to the sewing