another word from her.

"Yes, sir," assented Donald, quickly. It would be glorious to go, he
thought, and actually be a boarding-school boy, belonging to a crack
base-ball club, a debating society, perhaps even a secret society; to
get boxes of fruit and cake from home, and share them with his
room-mates; maybe have a fight or two, for a fellow must hold his own,
you know;--but then how strange it would be to live without Dorry! Oh,
if she only were a boy!

[Illustration: DONALD'S THOUGHTS.]

"I'd come home on Thanksgiving and Christmas?" asked Don, following up a
rather lonesome feeling.

"Oh, yes! but you're not off yet, my boy. The fact is, I did think
seriously of sending you this autumn, and I even looked up a few good
places, intending to make a selection. But there's no special hurry.
This boarding-school business has its uncomfortable side. It breaks up a
household, and makes little sisters lonesome. Doesn't it, Dorry?"

Dorry _couldn't_ speak now, though she tried, and Mr. George
considerately went on: "Besides, there's another, a very good reason,
why we should wait awhile. You are needed here, Donald, just now."

"Needed here?" thought Dorry. "I should say so!" Uncle might as well
remark that the sunshine, or the sky, or the air was needed here as to
say that Don was needed. A big tear gathered under her lashes--"Besides,
she was no more his little sister than he was her little brother. They
were just even halves of each other--so now." And the tear went back.

Meantime, Uncle's remarks flowed slowly on, like a deep stream passing
between two banks--one with its sunny leaves and blossoms all astir in
the breeze, the other bending, casting its image in the stream, and so
going on with it in a closer companionship.

"You are needed here, Donald; but, as I said before, there is plenty of
time. And though I shall bear this boarding-school matter in mind, I
cannot well spare you just now. I shall require, perhaps, some vigilance
on your part, and coolheadedness,--not that anything very serious is
likely to occur; in fact, there is no reason why it should--but a
brother naturally guards his sister even when no danger threatens."

"Certainly," said Don.

"Humph!" thought Dorothy, "I don't want to be guarded, thank you." But,
for all that, she felt proud that Uncle should speak of her in this way
to Donald. Probably he was going to mention fire, and remind them of the
invariable rule that they must not, o